Business - period ended 10.15.2006

Business / Socially Responsible Investment / Weapons // Ethics@Work: Up in arms / Jerusalem Post / Jerusalem / Israel / M.E. /5-Oct-06//..The arms trade is an ever-controversial one, and there are a variety of ethical approaches to it. A large number of "socially responsible investment funds" screen out all defense industry firms (or at least claim to).

A nemesis to this Quaker-style approach is found in a classic of English literature, Bernard Shaw's play "Major Barbara." The anti-hero, arms magnate Andrew Undershaft, elevates his self-interested policy of selling to anyone with cash to an ethical principle, or more precisely a series of ethical principles, including: "Peace shall not prevail save with a sword in her hand" and "Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done." ….