We all know mathematically that zero is also infinity. This seeking for infinity is the foundation of most religions and the quest of mysticism. The more one seeks the infinite the more one is opened up to a religious sensibility.
Zero is not just a number but in risk and safety, a symbol and anchor for an ideology that desires the absolute. Many who advocate this ideology use the word ‘culture’ and ‘ideology’ to describe this ‘movement’ that has become much more than just a number.
Ultimately, we see in this fixation with zero in the kind of apocalyptic, religious imagery and semiotics evident in The Spirit of Zero, the global mantra for the safety industry (https://safetyrisk.net/the-spirit-of-zero/ ). This is how we end up with an industry preoccupied with salvation (https://salvationsafety.com/) and the language of ‘safety saves’.
Along with this seeking of infinity and infallibility, is an unconscious drive for perfection and demonisation of error, fallibility, taboos and the Denial of Death. Risk-taking is one such taboo.
One can understand the seduction of zero by a simple reading of Seife: Zero, the Biography of a Dangerous Idea (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780670884575).
Zero is so dominant in the safety industry that it has become equated with the word ‘safety’ itself. Safety is zero and zero is safety. Many in safety use the words interchangeably and often accompanied with religious language, metaphors and expectations of perfection. This is also endorsed by mythical nonsense like the Bradley Curve (https://safetyrisk.net/the-dangerous-and-harmful-bradley-curve/).
When Zero is symbolised it makes itself mythically true, something that must not be challenged, as equivalent to being anti-safety. Zero is then made an archetype for safety. How could you dare not support zero? How many people do you want to be injured today? Thus goes the binary oppositionalism (https://safetyrisk.net/binary-opposites-and-safety-goal-strategy/ ) common to all myths.
When coupled to an Engineering and behaviourist mentality, this religious sensibility becomes its own cultural absolute. This is how the likes of Hopkins argues for the cultural imperialism of safety to ‘over-ride’ National culture (https://safetyrisk.net/just-as-well-culture-doesnt-listen-to-safety/ ). This is why Safety argues to stop talking about culture (Busch). The last thing safety needs is to be taken into a cloud (https://safetyrisk.net/culture-is-cloudy-in-safety-and-thats-a-good-thing/). Clouds are bad.
Let’s not think of safety and risk as a ‘wicked problem’, let’s just make everything black and white and eliminate the so called ‘confusion’ of culture. Ah, the seduction of safety fundamentalism (https://safetyrisk.net/moral-fundamentalism-in-safety/; https://safetyrisk.net/having-fun-in-safety-fundamentalism/; https://safetyrisk.net/safety-fundamentalism/ )
Such an approach that seeks absolute certainty (https://safetyrisk.net/radical-uncertainty/) is served well by the ideology of zero. Zero helps encourage the delusions of predictability (https://safetyrisk.net/the-myth-of-certainty-and-prediction-in-risk/) so that Safety Management Systems and controls become the source for salvation. This is how ‘safety saves’.
This is how safety moments (https://safetyrisk.net/the-mythical-safety-moment/) become prayers and incantations.
This is how many safety systems become rituals (https://safetyrisk.net/rituals-in-risk-management-podcast/; https://safetyrisk.net/culture-silences-in-safety-ritual/; https://safetyrisk.net/ritual-performance-and-risk/).
This is how Zero becomes as god (For the Love of Zero – Free download), the ultimate focus for infinity.
Dr Rob Long
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