Why start with a positive statement of values when the bulk of the statement is about avoiding complicity in harm and wrongdoing?
We acknowledge that good people shoulder the dual burdens of avoiding evil and pursuing good. But we have reasons to think that making both tasks obligatory when selecting vendors would be unrealistic and unwise. We describe our reasons in the statement of principles itself. When we have the knowledge and community support to do both, then we should do both and we say so. But when we cannot, we give priority to avoiding complicity in harm and wrongdoing. In this sense, the principles resemble the Hippocratic Oath which commands us, above all, to do no harm. This explains our focus on avoiding harm. But why open with a statement of our positive values? We cannot define harm or evil independently of our vision of good. We cannot describe what we seek to avoid, or why we seek to avoid it, without describing what we seek.
