Solace In Times of Uncertainty
Amidst the constant uncertainty of life, there are no answers found in measurables. There is no assurance to uncertainty in Qanta (https://safetydifferently.com/todd-conklin-quanta-risk-and-safety-conference-2019/ )! Technique, mechanics, behaviourism and data offer nothing for persons when faced with struggles, unanswered questions, suffering and loss, harm and pain – there is no comfort in data. When faced with uncertainty, pain and risk, there is no solace in the discourse of Safety (https://safetyrisk.net/three-lessons-in-how-to-be-unprofessional/ ), zero or engineering.
Whilst Safety runs about spruiking the delusions of certainty in data, zero and prediction (https://safetymanagement.eku.edu/blog/using-predictive-analytics-to-predict-and-prevent-workplace-injuries/ ), people on the tools know this is nonsense (https://safetyrisk.net/first-report-on-zero-survey/ ).
When we face the big questions, wicked questions and tough questions, even words can’t help. But there is always Poetics. Poetics is about all in life and being that is NOT measurable.
I live in an average suburb in Canberra under the canopy of Mount Taylor. Canberra is a designed city where the value of community and people is prioritized above Technique. Most suburbs are designed so they cannot be driven through, one can enter in and out off the freeway and this keeps the traffic to a minimum and the focus on those who live there. Canberra is also a city where green spaces, bush and bike tracks are regulated and this creates what we know as The Bush Capital. I discussed this design in the book Real Risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/real-risk/ ) particularly my suburb on pp. 30ff.
Amidst the uncertainties, isolation and struggles of Covid there is so much solace and strength to be found in walking, movement and embodied presence in Nature. On one of our walks recently, we noticed someone had set up a ‘Poettree’ (see Figure One. Poettree ACT).
Figure One. Poettree ACT
You can find this new site here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/poetreeact/
What a brilliant idea. Amidst the struggles of Covid when uncertainty reigns we can be comforted at the Poettree, pause, reflect, find heart love, calm the storm and walk on. What happens to us as we pause is that Poetics speaks to us. The metaphors, similes, personification, rhythm, rhyme and flow connect and resonate with us as if in song, we get drawn out of our own petty internal focus and resonant with a bigger picture. I have discussed Poetics before and its relevance to safety:
- https://safetyrisk.net/poetics-of-the-self/
- https://safetyrisk.net/the-poetics-of-resistance-and-risk/
- https://safetyrisk.net/a-poetics-of-safety/
- https://safetyrisk.net/the-poetics-of-risk/
We don’t know this person who has done this but obviously they serve us and think communally and so offer this gift to those who walk, reflect and listen. The person who started this Poettree also doesn’t know who they help, comfort and care for. None of this can be measured and yet when we pause in the presence of the Poettree we are enriched, find solace and help when we feel unsafe.
Dr Rob Long
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Bob Coughlan says
These things are genuinely very nice to see in these times of uncertainty. They remind us of our collective humanity.
The fact that ‘safety’ is frequently singled out as a nefarious entity, bent on cluelessly interfering with the natural order, while management looks on helplessly as if they’re strapped to a chair ala Clockwork Orange, and it is implied that ‘safety’ is often the apparent root of many of the workforce’s ills, even that of society as a whole, shows some of us how far those actually charged with leadership and ultimate accountability, will go to place a buffer, a literal and figurative ‘safety’ barrier between themselves and ultimate accountability.
‘Law’, ‘Leadership’, ‘Management’ ‘Supervision’ hardly ever, if ever at all, appear to be mentioned as part of the motley crew of nefarious villains, and through this frequent omission are comparatively presented as the Noble heroes fighting the good fight against the relentless onslaught of evil ‘safety’, yet these are the characters who have their hands firmly on the controls, and who will jealously rush to guard against any attempts to actually give orders or enact any real influence, by those whom they conveniently patronize into believing that they have more power and influence than they actually do. This ‘safety’ monster is very often of their own making. The only truly functional organizations I’ve witnessed are those in which the leaders take accountability no matter the outcome, and who don’t see ‘safety’, ‘HR’, ‘supply chain’, finance’ as human-shields behind whom they can hide to shelter themselves from that which they appear to fear most – accountability.
The very same ‘leaders’ who will condescendingly patronize ‘safety’ personnel into believing they are ‘the eyes and ears’, and sometimes even ‘the voice’ of Management, are very often the first to mercilessly yank the choke-chain on their toothless watchdog / ventriloquist dummy if they so much as dare go off-script.
It’s high time the ‘organ-grinders’ had their feet held (metaphorically of course) to the fire.
Rob Long says
Bob, when we understand Safety as an archetype and personify it as having a life of its own we can see the forces that make it as you describe. It is as if the industry has its own life-force to police, dehumanise and harm people in the name of good.
Of course zero and safety have become the same thing. The global mantra sums up all that is sick with Safety. It defines safety by a number and ideology that overides any concern for the common life or ethics in respect for persons. All that matters is a number, the delusions of injury rates as safety then becomes all it can talk about.
and all those with vested interests in associations and the current state of zero-safety want to see no challenge to this culture and curriculum that believes mechanics and behaviourism will create a safer world.
The best way to find out what safety believes is to explore all it is silent about. Just look at the AIHS book of non-knowledge. If this is what you use to define what safety is about, its doomed. The AIHS the lovers of zero never discuss zero or the non-ethic of zero, whilst at the same time sprioking duty and compliance as ethics in the propaganda of safety discourse. Like it says nothing about politics whilst creating a politic of ignorance and compliance and the deification of Dumb.
Rob Long says
Sorry, a better link is here: https://www.instagram.com/poettreeact/