I have a friend whose home is a memorium to her football team. Every space in the home is decorated with figurines, posters, cups, images, symbols, signs and memorabilia of here team. The team has a golden history of many premiership wins but those days are long gone. I imagine in the club rooms of this team, there would be plaques, cups, posters, paintings, tally-boards and honour-boards of best players, premiership wins and team names, similar to the recorded semiotics kept in many schools. None of these ‘things’ in themselves carry any sacred meaning yet, they will not be removed. Once these things are attributed with a memory of power, belonging and meaning (semiosis), they are ‘made’ sacred.

Humans do this many things, such as processes, images, models and ideas. Then once an idea is anchored to a symbol, it is ‘made’ sacred. This is how all myth is constructed.

The moment Heinrich, Reason and other safety founders put their dominoes, pyramids, swiss-cheese and matrices in place, they became myth.

You can read about how humans need and create myths here:

The making of taboo and myth go back as far as time itself. The earliest artefacts of culture, civilization and archaeology demonstrate that myth making is foundational to the human creation of meaning (semiosis). It seems humans need and want this anchoring for security and belonging. Myth making gives certainty and security in the face of death and uncertainty.

Then once something has been made myth, such as the Hierarchy of Controls, it then cannot be challenges or removed. It takes on a power of its own, what we know as archetypical power.

When I spoke at this conference a few weeks ago on situational awareness, the whole day was framed and anchored to the Hierarchy of Controls, that has nothing to do with situational awareness. This is what Safety does. It seeks comfort and certainty in what it knows and develops anxiety the moment any of its myths are questioned.

In this way, the Hierarchy of Controls have been made sacred, just like the pyramids, injury ratios and swiss-cheese have been made myth.

Unfortunately, none of this stuff put out by the founders of safety has any relationship to reality.

We my laugh at how religions have ‘faith’ in myths but is Safety any different? And, it doesn’t matter whether you call it ‘safety science’ or ‘new view’ the process of myth making and belief is just the same.

There is no evidence needed when a myth gains power. Faith in swiss-cheese, pyramids, risk matrix or bow-tie is still ‘faith’. There is no evidence that these symbols, graphics and semiotics ‘work’. Indeed, many of these are attributed with sacred meaning so that they cannot be interrogated or questioned. If you question James Reason (https://safetyrisk.net/you-get-what-you-expect-in-safety-or-how-the-burden-of-james-reasons-ideology-bogs-down-safety/ ) somehow that is taboo. If you suggest that ‘faith’ in scientific method is still ‘faith’, you are somehow in taboo territory ( https://safetyrisk.net/faith-in-reason-and-unreasoned-faith-as-safety-myth/). But there is no ‘science’ in Heinrich, even though it is labelled ‘science’ and there is no evidence for linear causality. Indeed, the evidence suggests the opposite.

The making of myth (idea/symbol) enables the attribution of things as ‘sacred’.

Of course, what helps safety maintain its myths is ignorance about mythology and semiotics. In a similar way this enables Safety to be theologian, historian, mythologist and ethicist from a base of engineering.

The best way to create myths is to be unaware of its dynamic. The best way to make an object sacred is to be ignorant about the dynamics of semiotics. The same occurs in linguistics where Safety uses metaphors it doesn’t understand.

Indeed, not understanding the difference between the archetype of Safety as compared to the process of safety, enables the making of meaning in the activity of safety.

The best way to determine if something has been ‘made’ sacred is to suggest it be taken away or to criticise it. The response will tell you just how myth the power of the myth has been amplified. But, people know this intuitively in zero harm companies. Any criticism or questioning of the myth of zero is at risk of a loss of employment.

If you are bothered about how all this works and how myths in safety are unquestioned you can learn more by the following:

Coaching, mentoring or presentation: admin@spor.com.au

You can download free books here: https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/

You can do the free Introduction to SPoR here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/4233556

You can email for coaching here: admin@spor.com.au

You can watch free videos here: https://vimeo.com/cllr

Or you can come to the SPoR Convention in September: https://spor.com.au/spor-convention-2025/

All of these avenues of learning are available to you if you want to learn and improve your skills in situational awareness.

And, all of what you will learn will help re-frame your worldview and improve your situational awareness. It is all practical, positive and doable. It’s up to you if you are ready for that leap of faith.