So much of what parades in safety marketing is not matched by reality. We see this best exemplified in the marketing of the nonsense language of ‘thought leaders’, global safety leadership’ and ‘world-class safety’. DuPont use such language but it is not matched by reality.
We see recently the announcement of a Qantas Safety Academy linked to a couple of Universities and then this week we read this: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-27/qantas-refutes-safety-bureau-report-listing-series-of-failures/104654270
When thinking about tackling risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/tackling-risk/) and adopting methods, it’s important to cut through the marketing and get to the methodology. A methodology is a philosophy of what undergirds an approach. A methodology in risk needs to be founded on a solid ethical base, not just a few slogans.
Slogans are the fuel for propaganda and marketing not the foundation for education and learning. Slogans are the dynamic that fuels indoctrination and a lack of critical thinking, that we see common in safety. Unfortunately, the safety industry has no curriculum for critical thinking and so, is susceptible to propaganda, indoctrination and mis-information.
This week we saw an unusual conflict between the Chairman of the Australian ABC (Kim Williams) and Joe Rogan in response to this.
Rogan is a comedian come podcaster, with a huge audience that thrives on populist thinking, conspiracy theory, misinformation and right-wing politics.
This conflict highlights the problem we have today between the power of marketing and the need for critical thinking. The fact that Rogan and Musk felt the need to attack Kim Williams with Trump-like name calling speaks for itself.
The comedian, actor and former TV host is one of the world’s biggest podcast hosts, with more than 14.5 million followers on audio platform Spotify and 17.3 million subscribers on YouTube, where he has more than 5 billion views across his videos. He reportedly signed a deal worth $US250 million ($386 million) with Spotify earlier this year. Yep, it’s all about money.
Williams made this comment about Rogan:
‘I think people like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities. They prey on fear, they prey on anxiety, they prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society, and they entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative.’
I’m with Williams. Rogan is not a source for learning, intelligence, education or truth-telling. His show markets to an audience that lack critical thinking skills and soaks up populism without any evidence for opinion. Rogan is not a researcher, scientist or has any skills or experience in sophisticated levels of thinking.
We don’t go to the toilet to drink water and so should go to Rogan for intelligent critical thinking.
There’s a big difference between Rogan and Williams. One is motivated by the ability to make heaps of money, the other is funded by government to deliver media services and is regulated by its charter (https://www.abc.net.au/about/legislative-framework/103700608).
Williams, (with over 45 years in media and broadcasting) is right in his comments. We know that if you want to make lots of money, propaganda sells, slogans sell and, anchoring to an ideology full of fear and anxiety, is a proven pathway to mind control. Goebbels discovered this in the 1930s.
Then when you see the pile on followed up by Elon Musk, you know that what is behind Rogan is the quest for greed not, a concern for the well-being of society. Musk and Rogan are part of the epidemic of mis-information and dis-information that plagues our society.
If ever we needed more intelligence, critical thinking and deconstructive thinking, it is now (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401224000288).
But let’s return to safety.
The first question we must ask whenever confront by marketing in safety is: where is the power and who benefits from this promotion? It is naïve in the extreme to think that corporations act in some kind of altruistic motive when they market to you. The track record of corporations is to make money and to build political power.
In SPoR, we help people deconstruct marketing with a simple tool to assist critical thinking (See Figure 1. Critical Political Questions).
At another level, we also need to be intelligent when semiotics (including multi-media) is used to accompany popular mythology and messaging.
In SPoR, we use a range of tools to help what Ricoeur called ‘a hermeneutic of suspicion’ (https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/431). In such a critique, one is not afraid of deconstruction or negativity. But, this is not undertaken for itself, its purpose is to reconstruct that messaging with a focus on ethical outcomes. We look through the messaging to hidden and unconscious motives to find out if what is proposed dehumanises and harms persons.
Much of what is marketed in safety, is not accompanied by a declaration of methodology or ethics. Much of the semiotics like bow-tie, swiss-cheese and Bradley curve are founded on erroneous undeclared ideologies that are harmful. The ideology of zero is the same (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/). The language of zero is not just delusional but leads to the brutalism of persons.
We see the same in many of the slogans adored by safety such as: ‘safety is a choice you make’, ‘blame fixes nothing’ and ‘all accidents are preventable’.
Hidden in all slogans is an undeclared ethic that usually disguises harm. That is why slogans are used, to by-pass the need for critical thinking. The preoccupation with positive psychology in the NV, SD, S2, RE and HOP group is just the same. Fear of the negative simply empowers vested interests to market to the industry without constraint.
In safety, we ought not fear critique, but this implies some expertise in ethics, another discipline that safety seems to care little about.
So, before you go emptying your bank account and buy the cool-aide, do some homework. Find out what is behind the marketing and what is being sold. Use the SPoR tool provided to find out what is hidden in the message. And, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
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- Hearing Voices - January 18, 2025
- You Can’t ‘Bust’ Myths - January 18, 2025
- There is No Such Thing as an HRO - January 18, 2025
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