Surfacing – Making the Unconscious Conscious The elephant in the room in Safety is The Wayward Mind (Claxton ) and by ‘mind’ I don’t mean brain. The notion of ‘mind’ refers to the whole person: body, brain and environment. Humans are only persons-minds in social relation, this is what the noted educationalist Robinson talks about […]
Safety Sacraments and Rituals
Safety Sacraments and Rituals As Australians approach the time of year most dense with symbolism (ANZAC and Easter), it may be helpful to ponder the nature, power and significance of symbols, sacraments and rituals in relation to the safety industry. After all, the safety industry is now imbued with as many rituals as any religion, […]
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Safety People Don’t ‘Save Lives’
Safety People Don’t ‘Save Lives’ The naivety and delusions of the safety industry know no bounds as is evident by this language that surfaces at safety conferences about how safety ‘saves lives’. An example is below. Such language should not be part of safety discourse and certainly endorses the many articles on this blog site […]
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Mental Health and the Safety Habitus
Mental Health and the Safety Habitus How is the safety industry equipped to tackle the challenges of mental health? What assumptions about personhood and ‘mind’ dominate the safety sector? Do these assumptions help or hinder an holistic approach to tackling mental health at work? These questions ought to be of great concern to anyone in […]
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No Soft Skills in Safety
No Soft Skills in Safety When we think about the power of language to shape and influence the human unconscious, we know that words matter. This is why we need to be careful with the use of the word ‘safety’. Unfortunately, many people now associate scepticism, cynicism and negativity with the word ‘safety’. The recent […]
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Trinket Safety
Trinket Safety There’s nothing quite like the safety market when selling snake oil. Amazing to see engineers selling neuroscience and behaviourists selling eugenics. Remarkable how easy it is to sell the silver bullet to an undiscerning audience. The marketing of so called perfect solutions to the challenges of fallibility are at best entertaining and at […]
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Rhetoric and Reality in Safety
Rhetoric and Reality in Safety Once upon a time the word ‘rhetoric’ was equated with philosophy and the art of persuasion. It has now degenerated into meaning little more than eloquence with words or linguistic style. It has lost its meaning of being about genuine thinking and purpose. More so, these days rhetoric often refers […]
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The Mystery of the Emotions
The Mystery of the Emotions One of the puzzles of human ‘being’ is the uncontrollability of the emotions. The idea that the brain can just ‘will’ or ‘turn on or off’ the emotions is one of the delusions of the behaviourist/cognitivist construct. Why is it that some people have less fear than others? Why are […]
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The Social Politics of Risk Workshop
The Social Politics of Risk Workshop What do they say about conversations at a party? Never talk politics or children. In my model of risk maturity you will see that social politics is placed at the higher end of complexity. Of course, this is not a static model but when animated it depicts people walking […]
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Behaviourist Neuroscience as Safety
Behaviourist Neuroscience as Safety It’s fascinating and entertaining to watch Safety manipulate the discipline of neuroscience to suit its own behaviourist worldview. Even more fascinating to watch Safety, with no expertise in neuroscience, bend this discipline to behaviourist outcomes then claim that it has moved on from behaviourism. Then further to claim that neuroscience understands […]
