Social Psychology of Risk

Meditating on Impermanence in Risk

ByProf. Robert Long

The poet, songwriter, musician and spiritualist George Harrison once wrote:

Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up
And has left you with no warning
It’s not always gonna be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

Sunset doesn’t last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this my love is up
And must be leaving
But it’s not always going
To be this grey

This song and many other on the triple album All Things Must Pass is about impermanence, fallibility, Hope and being.

This album was the first by a Beatle after leaving the group in 1969. But it’s not just about the loss of The Beatles but George also lost his Mum about the same time.

George was the first Beatle to embrace Eastern philosophy and religion (https://safetyrisk.net/eastern-mindfulness-weick-and-transdisciplinarity/) and wrote such classics as My Sweet Lord based on his faith. He then shared his faith with the group where all the Beatles went to India to in 1968 to meditate with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Paul and George were baptised Catholic and John and Ringo Anglicans but their real faith was captured in Here, There and Everywhere and Let it Be. The influence of traditional Christian faith on the Beatles was minimal but when they embraced Eastern religion about the time of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) so too did their exploration into metaphysics and psychedelics.

Harrison was the one who went on more deeply into Hinduism and Eastern mysticism and, his music was dominated by metaphors of nature, clouds, sun, earth, darkness, morning and rain.

George’s movement into Eastern philosophy had a profound effect on those of us in the West. In the 1960s and 1970s (https://www.spiritualarts.org.uk/george-harrison-all-things-must-pass/ ), a new consciousness of Eastern philosophy began to be considered against the constraints of Western philosophy. We saw this in the paper by Prof. Karl. E. Weick with his understanding of mindfulness (https://safetyrisk.net/eastern-mindfulness-weick-and-transdisciplinarity/) and in other of his writings. However, Weick is just one small voice amongst the noise of Safety which remains profoundly Western, deontological and linear.

The challenge from Weick (https://www.academia.edu/24611432/An_exploration_of_mindfulness_theories_in_Eastern_and_Western_philosophies) in 2014 was to reconsider the linearity of Western thinking about risk and, consider what Eastern philosophies could offer our thinking of messiness, chaos and ambiguity. It was in this work where Weick emphasised the importance of β€˜organising’ NOT β€˜organisation’.

Yet, sadly, Safety doesn’t read what is in Weick, it likes to use Weick for what suits its own philosophy. So, Safety latched on to the idea of the High Reliability Organisation (HRO) as a fixed concept and this was never intended by Weick.

This is why in SPoR we always refer to it as HROing. We make it an active participle that is a continuous process without end, one never arrives. There is no permanence in risk.

Yet, the realities of risk don’t seem to deter the con marketing of 1% Safer, Zero and Don’t Die. Moreso, this nonsense only survives because the industry lacks any strength in education, learning and critical thinking concerning Ethics and Human Agency. Can you just imagine getting your Don’t Die merch and hanging such a banner at the entrance to a hospital? This is the stupidity of Zero and the naivety of an industry that even now tries to argue away the reality of human error (https://safetyrisk.net/wishing-away-fragility-and-fallibility-in-safety/).

 

 

Prof. Robert Long

Prof. Robert Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Prof. Robert Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

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