Embracing Imperfection
The opposite of zero culture is Kintsugi.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of embracing imperfection (https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210107-kintsugi-japans-ancient-art-of-embracing-imperfection).
Fear of imperfection and fallibility is fostered by the ideology of zero=safety. (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/fallibility-risk-living-uncertainty/).
- This is why one of the characteristics of the culture of safety is fear.
- This is why minor injuries that bear no legal liability (https://vimeo.com/163499152) are manifest in inquisitions and investigations. This is what the culture of safety=zero promotes.
- This is why workers tell lies in zero organisations about injury.
- This is why zero culture is anti-learning.
When you are required to believe the impossible in order to do safety (https://safetyrisk.net/believe-the-impossible-and-speak-nonsense-to-people/), you are already on a metaphysical trajectory. And, this comes from DuPont , the professionals in harm (https://safetyrisk.net/dark-waters-the-true-story-of-dupont-and-zero/).
No wonder global safety put out a Pentecostal video about zero (https://youtu.be/_VIRXEuniWA?si=1kG0rOVfuPpS33WZ). Any sane safety person should condemn this religious nonsense.
In Kintsugi, imperfection is a blessing. Fallibility is also a blessing. In fallibility we learn and experience resilience. In fallibility we learn wisdom and maturity. Can the perfect person please cast the first stone!
Each scar and each imperfection remind us of human reality. The religion of zero is about unreality.
In Everyday Social Resilience (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/everyday-social-resilience-being-in-risk/) we are reminded that being ‘broken’ is not an individual thing. In fallibility ALL are fallible, our strength to be resilient is discovered in the healing communitie. ‘Bounce back’, mental fitness and ‘toughen up’ is safety mythology. Resilience is not quick, easy or individual. Everyday Social Resilience is longitudinal, social and knows how to embrace injury, especially psychosocial harm and mental health issues.
In SPoR, we would never use the word ‘hazard’ associated with any form of harm. Fallible humans are not a problem. Humans are not the enemy of safety (https://safetyrisk.net/the-enemy-of-safety-humans/) despite what the AIHS want to promote. Psychosocial issues are not a hazard.
Safety is the last place in the universe one would seek expertise on mental health.
The ideology and cult of zero is a mental health problem.
In Kintsugi, we see the rightful approach to human ‘being’. And, the denial of this being is a mental health disorder. This is the culture of safety.
Prof. Robert Long
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