Slogans make cults, not moral character – Barry Spud
One of the profound issues to do with the issue of blame is its complexity. Anyone speaking about blame as some simplistic black and white thing has little idea what they are talking about. But hey, ‘blame fixes nothing’.
In order to understand the complexities of blame one needs to start in a foundation of moral philosophy and ethics. Some expertise in linguistics, religion and social psychology is also helpful. You won’t find much interest in these across the safety industry. Slogans are easy to sell, complexity is not.
Praise and blame are moral actions and they cannot be discussed without moral context. So, a clearly articulated ethic must precede any discussion about blame or praise.
Such an ethic or any expertise in moral meaning does not exist in the HOP world where ‘blame fixes nothing’. Indeed, by declaring slogans ‘principles’ we know this is true.
Furthermore, this slogan, amongst its other slogans (eg, error is ‘normal’) is not just a dangerous slogan, it’s an immoral slogan.
What this tells us is, at the foundation of HOP, there has been no consideration of: the nature of principles, an ethic of work, the meaning of language or its morality. And, once the slogan is out, it cannot be retracted (sunk cost).
At the heart of ethics and moral method are critical issues of: the use of power, political, religious and social/cultural tradition. Indeed, one can’t talk about blame without also understanding its religious context, eg. 2.4 billion Christians believe that the shifting of blame fixes everything! Yes, but not in HOP, ‘blame fixes nothing’.
So, when is blame moral, immoral or amoral? What is it to be blameworthy? By what method is blame undertaken, spoken, enacted and situated? Is blame within a community different to blame in a legal or alien setting? How is judgement, causality, responsibility, accountability, alienation, necessity, community, jurisprudence, Justice, liability, criminality, litigation, forgiveness and love, understood in the face of blame? What about the problem of fault, restoration of victims, the suffering of those harmed and the necessity of Justice? This also includes the inadequacies of punishment and yet, punishment is necessary too.
Wouldn’t it be so neat and nice (and naïve as it is in the HOP world) to just say ‘blame fixes nothing’ so one can suit themselves and sell tickets to the next HOP performance?
Having worked in the Justice system, the courts, detention centres and social work, I can tell you, the sociopaths and psychopaths would love to hear the slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’.
Then of course we have the naïve idea that bad naughty blame is much better if it is shifted to ‘systems’ but this is just more semantic HOP spin for avoidance in tackling the problem in a mature and comprehensive manner. Indeed, how are systems held accountable?
Of course, when you confront the propagandist who spreads such slogans their first response is that ‘blame fixes nothing’ doesn’t mean ‘blame fixes nothing’. Ah yes, zero doesn’t mean zero it means ‘1% safer’, ‘beyond zero’, ‘zero plus 1’ or ‘try harder’. Such is the linguistic incompetence of HOP.
I recently celebrated 51 years of marriage and now with 5 grandchildren and adult children I know more than ever that ‘blame fixes things’. Indeed, children as young as 10 months learn that blame avoidance is a way of learning. Blame fixes things.
One of the great struggles in life is learning how to manage praise and blame, not to wish it away!
Children learn in all their games that ‘blame fixes things’. Indeed, understanding and learning about blame is essential for grown and maturity. Ah, but not HOP, ‘blame fixes nothing’.
Just because blame is unpleasant or that some ‘over-blame’ or are dis-proportionate in blame, doesn’t mean blame is evil or wrong. Indeed, without blame we will never learned about wrong-doing.
The criminal law is founded on the idea that ‘blame fixes things’. Indeed, in safety law, there is always the option to charge a PCBU (Person Conducting a Business of Undertaking) with a criminal offence. Just imagine arriving an incident or fatality at a worksite spruiking the stupid slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’. Such slogans are the reason why in many places, Safety has no credibility.
The place to start with understanding blame is NOT HOP or Safety.
The place to start in understanding the nature of blame and the management of blame is in a comprehensive ethic of personhood. Something you find nowhere in Safety (including the HOP, NV, RE, SD and S2 group). Similarly, you won’t find a mature or well-articulated understanding of ‘human error’.
Understanding blame is the beginning of wisdom.
A few readings might get you started on a mature and wise approach to blame:
Apter, T., (2018). Passing Judgement, Praise and Blame in Everyday Life. Nortons, New York.
Girard, R., (1986) The Scapegoat. John Hopkins Uni Press. New York.
Resodihardjo, S., (2020) Crises, Inquiries and the Politics of Blame. London.
Robinson, D., (2002) Praise and Blame, Moral Realism and Its Applications. Princeton. New York.
Shaver, K., (1985) The Attribution of Blame Causality, Responsibility, and Blameworthiness. Springer, New York.
So, why would one research the complexity and ‘wickedity’ of blame when a simple slogan will do?
In the end, we know all this slogan does is promote fraudulence. The moment there is any grave wrongdoing and someone is sacked, we know the slogan is meaningless spin.
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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