Robert Long

Safety, The Pathway to Surveillance Culture

ByProf. Robert Long

In today’s world, if you want to justify anything invoke the word ‘safety’.

When you invoke the word ‘safety’: don’t speak about by-products or trade-offs, don’t discuss hidden unethical factors, don’t raise the issue of personhood, power or manipulation, don’t mention the word ‘surveillance’. Just get out those tools of Technique (Ellul) and sell another saviour for the gullible lemmings to follow.

This week we saw the sale of cheap $89 Anko glasses from Kmart (https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/kmarts-89-glasses-can-record-what-you-see-but-what-happens-next/3go143uq7). And, they quickly sold out.

Just because a technology can be developed, doesn’t mean it is ‘good’ for persons.

And when you hear the likes of Zuckerberg stating the benefits of any technology (https://www.abc.net.au/religion/meta-ai-smart-glasses-and-the-ethics-of-augmented-reality/105849612 ), one should apply all the skills of critical and ethical thinking to the promotion and the product.

In SPoR, we start by applying basic social political questions to anything:

In this way we quickly who is advantaged by what is happening. We quickly see where the money and power flows, despite all the spin and slogans used to mask reality. You can be sure as sure, if you are being sold slogans, then propaganda is the strategy and follow the money.

So back to the Kmart glasses. The marketing of this product is astounding, I wonder how much money has to be recovered from Research and Development to make these glasses viable? And look at the framing language for this product, they are branded ‘smart glasses’. This week I saw them branded as ‘pervert glasses’:

But none of this will matter, because look Safety, it enables me top video my work hands free! They make you superintelligent (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/27/zuckerberg-ai-glasses-fail). They bring the cult of AI into your head.

But in SPoR, where ethics and moral meaning is foundational, where the tough ethical questions are asked, where ethics is considered foundational to risk we wonder about who can be harmed by this technology. So do many others:

Just because someone sells you a slogan and calls it a principle, doesn’t make it a principle. Use your critical thinking, see what is being sold, interrogate the slogans, verify if they are true. If course in HOP, none of the slogans are true or principled, they actually hide ethical values. Eg. context drives behaviour. Of course, it doesn’t. Belief and faith drive behaviour, whilst context is a micro-factor in driving action. However, you don’t need thinking when it comes to slogans, just watch the lemming repeat over and over that they are ‘principles’. This is how all indoctrination and propaganda work.

You don’t need to dig deep to see the harm in smart glasses.

Then pitch safety up a notch and we now have smart hard hats (https://youtu.be/XTLzuWfdcCU?si=UU2rjN8z9HMQGiY0). And just look at the marketing complete with catchy tune, easy user manual and the faux promise of how data, hands free etc can make for great safety.

Just because a technology can be developed, doesn’t mean it is ‘good’ for persons.

And it’s all about ‘smart technology’.

Just think of all the data that can be generated by the hat! And we all know that the belief in data is the sacred worship of the safety industry.

After all, with enough data we can get predictive safety. Just think of all the real time data Safety can get from the video camera, voice recognition, fatigue warnings, crash detection and other sensors for monitoring everything. Just think of all the AI hazard detection (https://www.viact.ai/iot/smart-helmet). Just think of the analytics, the proactive safety alerts, the augmented reality, its GPS tracking, its seamless communications and, look at all the endorsements on the web page!

OMG, I’ve found my way into safety heaven (https://safetyrisk.net/heaven-n-hell-and-the-safety-religion/). I’ve found the true pathway to biblical hierarchy of controls (https://safetyrisk.net/oh-my-god-its-safety/).

Such is the mythology pushed by the sellers of myths and safety propaganda.

But just interrogate for one second all of the hidden vices of this technology. Just explore for a minute the surveillance of these products. No wonder safety doesn’t want to study ethics!

https://safetyrisk.net/the-ethics-of-surveillance-and-safety/

https://safetyrisk.net/surveillance-doesnt-work/

Then look at all the responses to this stuff from the safety industry online and none of the vital ethical questions emerge. Such is the worship and blind adoration of the safety cult (https://safetyrisk.net/faith-in-ai-and-ai-safety/).

Just imagine, all of this technology will get safety to Zero!

Never mind who will be demonised. Never mind what happens to the data. Never mind what any of this does to persons. Believe in safety technology and thou shalt be saved!

Such is the salvation theology of Safety, it is made blind to the ethics of what it does and what it believes in. Just look:

Don’t you just love an industry that has no idea about ethics?

Don’t you love an industry that puts the ideology of technology over the moral meaning of personhood?

Don’t you love an industry that sells products and makes millions from blind safety propaganda?

Well, not in SPoR, where fostering personhood is foundational to critical thinking.

If you want to know more about the harm caused by safety beliefs and safety ideology, you can start here: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/the-ethics-of-risk/

If you want to know more about how to tackle risk in an ethical, positive and constructive way, then start here: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety-book-for-free-download/

 

Prof. Robert Long

Prof. Robert Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Prof. Robert Long

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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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