So much of safety orthodoxy is created by repetition. Say the word ‘professional’ often and it must be so! This is the safety way. No need to actually think critically about what it is to be professional or act professionally just, open the lid, throw in, wash, rise and dry. There you go, I’m a safety professional (that brutalises people through zero).

I find many in safety don’t even question the mantras and slogans that are circulated and in so doing affirm the very thing they are trying to interrogate. For example, the slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’ is NOT a principle. Calling a slogan, a ‘principle’ then repeating that error, simply affirms the original proposition. This is how the con of Safety works.

Repeating slogans like ‘safety is a choice you make’ simply affirms the absurdity of this simplistic proposition. Therefore, any thing unsafe must also be a choice. Repeating the slogan ‘all accidents are preventable’ simply affirms the idea that if there is an accident you didn’t do something to prevent it. This is how the power of slogans and propaganda work. Safety first.

Repeating the word ‘differently’ or ‘new view’ doesn’t make it so. If the ethic and methodology is the same, there is no difference (https://safetyrisk.net/how-do-you-do-safety-differently/). Putting icing on the same cake of systems, factors and ‘just culture’ is just the same cake with different icing.

For something to be a ‘principle’ it needs to emerge out of a well-articulated ethic. The slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’ that has emerged out of HOP ideology has no connection to an articulated ethic. This is why it creates more problems than it solves. Slogans may be catchy, slogans may be easy to repeat but, being conned by a slogan requires some intelligent thinking and critical deconstruction (Critical Discourse Analysis) before repeating nonsense that states a slogan as a ‘principle’. If you want to read a list of common principles, you can look here: https://lodestarguidance.com/principle-list/

The principle behind the slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’ projects the idea of infinite innocence. If blame doesn’t fix anything, then blame is demonised as of no use. It is useless. This is because the paradigm of fixing is linked to some undisclosed outcomes hidden in the slogan. All slogans hide principles they don’t reveal them, this is the dynamic of propaganda.

Generating and repeating useless slogans as principles is what mindless safety does. The repetition of slogans is the power of propaganda, not the way of intelligent critical thinking. The court system functions on the effectiveness of blame, does that mean then that the court system is useless too? (https://safetyrisk.net/blame-fixes-many-things-and-the-slogan-trap/ )

Repeat zero often enough, declare it as a ‘noble goal’ and therefore it must be so! (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-not-noble-moral-or-sense-able/). Don’t interrogate the source, that has no expertise in ethics, just rinse, repeat and leave to dry. Why not think through the implications of a slogan before endorsing it through repetition.

The beginning of critical thinking is discovered in Critical Discourse Analysis. Do a bit of that before repeating slogans. And if you want to do that, a good dose of Linguistics research would be handy (https://safetyrisk.net/critical-thinking-needed-more-than-ever-in-safety/).

The best way to disrupt the propaganda of safety is through NOT endorsing its myths and propaganda through repetition.

SPoR Convention on Critical Thinking

If you are interested in learning the skills for critical thinking then you can register for the SPoR Convention in Canberra 15-19 September: https://spor.com.au/spor-convention-2025/