In Systems of Survival the urbanist and economic thinker Jane Jacobs describes two fundamental syndromes of human civilizations: what she calls the guardian and commerce. The guardian is the government, the agency whose primary purpose is to preserve and protect the public. This syndrome is slow and serious. It reserves the right to kill—that is, it will go to war. It represents the public interest, and it is meant to shun commerce (witness conflicts over capital campaign contributions from vested interests).
