Whenever you see simplistic slogans in safety, you know that the origins of the slogan are based in ignorance and a con. Yes, the con may work, because Safety wants to believe yet another myth. This is exemplified in the nonsense HOP slogan ‘blame fixes nothing’.

The purpose of slogans is to hide complexity and distort reality.

The fundamental drive of such slogans is unethical. This is why you don’t read about an ‘ethic of risk’ in HOP. The first moral deceit commences by calling a slogan a ‘principle’. But this is easy to sell, because repetition in safety makes myths true.

Just observe all the symbols/myths Safety is already committed to, none of them are factually or scientifically true but are worshipped as gods as if a religion must be defended. For god’s sake don’t attack Heinrich, swiss-cheese, bow-tie, risk matrix, Bradley, Zero or the HoC, these have all now been made sacred.

Anything that is worshipped as a religion is evidenced in its taboos. (https://monoskop.org/images/7/7d/Douglas_Mary_Purity_and_Danger_An_Analysis_of_Concepts_of_Pollution_and_Taboo_2001.pdf).

This is easy to test. Just try to get rid of any of these symbols from an organisation and feel the earth shudder as a symbol is defended as if that symbol IS Safety. These symbol/myths are not just ‘aspects’ of safety, they are symbols to be worshipped.

For example, let’s have a quick look at the psychology of blame as a symbol (https://safetyrisk.net/the-dangerous-discourse-of-no-blame/).

Understanding the complexities of blame cannot be tackled without also understanding the emotions and dynamics of shame, fault and guilt. However, complexity doesn’t sell well in safety and understanding isn’t important when a product has a market. Just look at the wash, rinse and recycle pattern in these conferences that are marketed as ‘innovation’ or ‘revolution’ and follow the money trail.

When we understand the connection of shame and guilt that is anchored to blame, we don’t just write it off with some simplistic slogan. The genius of shame is understanding its moral and psychological purpose (https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/on-emotions-and-empathy/202409/the-necessary-genius-of-shame).

Yes, there is a degree of trauma that comes with blame, but blame in itself is not automatically morally bad. Geonna, Rodogno and Teroni (2012) give a good analysis in In Defense of Shame, The Faces of an Emotion. Oxford, London. Similarly, to dismiss the accommodation of anger associated with blame in such a silly slogan is also unethical (Flanagan, 2021, How to Do Things with Emotions, The Morality of Anger and Shame Across Cultures. Princeton. New York).

There is much to understand in the complexities of what accompanies blame and how the psychology of shame works (Kaufman, The Psychology of Shame).

The reality of blame is that it serves a positive purpose just as shame, guilt and the emotions that accompany blame, have a political, judicial and moral purpose.

A slogan like ‘blame fixes nothing’ is an extremist slogan that hides the real principles and complexities of tackling The Ethics of Risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/the-ethics-of-risk/).

How suitable that HOP never discusses the ethics, politics, complexity, psychology or emotions associated with blame. Instead, once committed to a symbol-as-myth, the linguistic gymnastics follow.

Rather than helping the safety industry, such a slogan hinders a mature conversation about yet another myth.

Once the slogan is made sacred, it is made symbolic, and becomes worshiped just like any other symbol or slogan in Safety and becomes impossible to be retracted. Such is the nature of sunk cost and the nature of creating mythical truth. Indeed, it is also clear that Safety doesn’t know what myth is (https://safetyrisk.net/how-to-make-safety-culture-myths-true/) and so it becomes so much easier to become religious about them.

The meaning of semiotics and myth are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other. Hence why Safety defends its myths religiously.

This is why in SPoR we study myth, semiotics and ethics as interconnected and Transdisciplinary (https://cllr.com.au/product/mythology-and-risk-module-25/).

If you are seeking a sense of balance in the way you tackle risk, then it is in the Disciplines that Safety rejects that you will find a great source of understanding, wisdom and maturity.