So, I think firms that sell weapons to individuals and governments broadly fall under the Commercial cluster; following the Guardian precepts as such a firm is probably a mistake. Note that these are ethical standards, so you could look at any individual firm and ask whether they’re following the precepts in particular cases. I suspect that most cases of war profiteering are a failure on the buyer’s side, at least as far as this view is concerned.
There is something interesting here with the question of largesse—traditionally, the Guardian’s role is to take resources from their territory and then spend those resources on buying loyalty / public goods. The military-industrial-complex is often this sort of largesse operation, but it’s not obvious that it should be. [Similarly, Jacobs talks a lot about how government meddling in agriculture is probably downstream of agriculture’s traditional role as powerbase for Guardians, but they tend to have lower yields / be worse at it than Commercial agriculture.]
There’s also this point that—the Guardians do need to be involved in trading! Even if the Baron isn’t supposed to engage in business himself, he still has things he needs to buy, taxes he needs to collect, and so on. This means there needs to be some sort of agent who is able to engage in trade, and presumably does so mostly using the Commercial precepts, and hopefully with a lessening of the implicit threat.
So, I think firms that sell weapons to individuals and governments broadly fall under the Commercial cluster; following the Guardian precepts as such a firm is probably a mistake. Note that these are ethical standards, so you could look at any individual firm and ask whether they’re following the precepts in particular cases. I suspect that most cases of war profiteering are a failure on the buyer’s side, at least as far as this view is concerned.
There is something interesting here with the question of largesse—traditionally, the Guardian’s role is to take resources from their territory and then spend those resources on buying loyalty / public goods. The military-industrial-complex is often this sort of largesse operation, but it’s not obvious that it should be. [Similarly, Jacobs talks a lot about how government meddling in agriculture is probably downstream of agriculture’s traditional role as powerbase for Guardians, but they tend to have lower yields / be worse at it than Commercial agriculture.]
There’s also this point that—the Guardians do need to be involved in trading! Even if the Baron isn’t supposed to engage in business himself, he still has things he needs to buy, taxes he needs to collect, and so on. This means there needs to be some sort of agent who is able to engage in trade, and presumably does so mostly using the Commercial precepts, and hopefully with a lessening of the implicit threat.