One of the foundations of appreciating the Olympics is knowing what you don’t know. It is so easy to be an armchair expert, having never studied the event, have no experience in the event, no feeling for the event, no knowledge in the event and using your expertise in philately to analyse what you are experiencing/viewing.

You can’t take the philosophy of one paradigm and use it to examine a paradigm you don’t know.

Training in safety doesn’t make one a psychologist, training in engineering doesn’t make one an expert in culture. Yet, Safety seems to think that safety makes one an expert in everything.

The first step to learning anything is knowing what you don’t know. Just because you know how to ride a bike doesn’t mean you have a clue about Olympic BMX! Just because you know how to dive into the water doesn’t mean you are an Olympic diver.

I was listening to the story of Matthew Mitchem (Australian Gold Medallist in Diving 2008) and was so moved by his story. His story of suffering, trials, harm and resilience is amazing. What Matthew has been through is an astounding story. Matthew knows all about harm.

But I know how to dive. I dive every time I go into the water. I must be an expert in diving! I must know all about Matthew’s skills, pressures, living, being, philosophy and experience. All I have is questions if I want to chat to Matthew and learn. This is what Schein called Humble Enquiry and there’s not much of this to be found in safety.

Why is it that Safety cultivates telling, not asking? Why is it telling and not listening? Even when Safety talks about Better Questions (Conklin), it’s not about effective questioning or even the skill of better questioning. This is the culture of safety, talking about things by what they are not (https://safetyrisk.net/declaring-what-is-by-what-isnt-hop-as-traditional-safety/). It’s like the armchair expert at the Olympics BMX.

I listened to Matthew’s story (https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/overnights/overnights/104149660) (and it starts at the 2 hour mark on ABC Overnights with Rod Quinn) and was overcome by his story.

How on earth could I understand Matthew’s world after hearing that? Would I even know what questions to ask? I don’t even have the critical equipment, knowledge or skill in his world to know what a good question is. Ah, yes but Safety knows all about Olympic diving and would give him advice on safety! Indeed, it would even offer him advice on psychosocial hazards! Afterall, ‘safety is a choice you make’.

I find it interesting when I receive criticism from Safety, that has no expertise, experience, skill or knowledge in religion, yet is happy to tell me I’m wrong about safety as a cult/religion. Yet, the evidence of the cult-ic religiousness of Safety is overwhelming (https://safetyrisk.net/if-you-want-to-know-about-culture-dont-start-with-safety/ ). Just watch the video The Spirit of Zero (https://safetyrisk.net/the-spirit-of-zero/) and tell me Safety is not a religious cult!

The trouble is, when you don’t have the expertise, experience, skill or knowledge about religion, you don’t know you are in a cult. You don’t have the mental equipment or experience to know you are being cultic.

It is not uncommon to see people worship safety, just like I see people worship a football team. I observe their ritualistic actions, their religious observance, their grammar and code about what they adore, their emotional bias to their supposed expertise, their passion for ‘saving lives’, their choice of religious metaphor, the symbolic myths, their semiotics and the religious linguistics and discourse they use. All of this is evidence (https://safetyrisk.net/what-is-evidence/ ) about a cult.

Most people in cults don’t know they are in cults. The ultimate cultic worship in safety is observed in the cult of zero (https://safetyrisk.net/the-cult-ure-of-zero/). All the key elements of cults are present in the cult of zero (https://archive.org/details/cultsnewreligion0000cowa). Yet, the best critics who know that I’m wrong have no studies or expertise in religion and cults. The same is offered about culture.

Didn’t you know, culture is what we do around here! Or maybe don’t talk about it! Or maybe culture doesn’t even exist! This is the nonsense Safety speaks about culture.

This is what you get when Safety comments about BMX because it knows how to ride a bike. This is what you get in psychosocial hazards with no expertise in mental health. This is how engineers lecture in safety about learning and ethics (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-the-expert-in-everything-and-the-art-of-learning-nothing/).

When it comes to understanding the paradigm of SPoR you cannot bring a safety lens to it hoping to understand it. And if you do want to understand SPoR, there is no impediment in your way (all books and many resources are free). It’s as easy as asking a question.