One of the sad spin offs from believing one is Safety and identifying as Safety is, how much it alienates people from safety.

I was reading a post yesterday that sprouted some of the favourite memes/myths Safety believes and, it was good to see an experienced safety person respond by stating that it was ‘evangelical’.

It’s a strange paradox that evangelism motivates its opposite. Evangelism isolates the crusader and while there are some ‘converts’, the basics of safety get lost. And what is this evangelism about? The safety favourites: swiss-cheese, pyramids, curves, quick fixes, guru worship, slogans, zero ideology and whatever might be marketed for more sales. Follow the money.

The reality is, if you are doing something well that works, there is no need for evangelism.

If you get the basics right (relationships, person-centredness, ethical Mindedness, tackling risk), there is no need for evangelism.

But if your evangelism lacks substance, methodology and method, it won’t last long until the next fad has to be invented to attract the lemmings. But there is no creativity, innovation or new methods, it’s just more marketing.

Superficial marketing and slogans can be attractive in the short term, but in time without a method, they cannot be sustained. They cannot be ‘operationalised’. What follows is then a new fad, a new slogan, a new narrative and so the cycle continues. The latest seems to be ‘incremental safety’.

However, in time, nothing improves except the bank balance of the entertainers and evangelists. Follow the money.

The real meaning of the word ‘euangellidzomai’ was never about marketing but simply inferred ‘sharing what you know’. Over time, the whole idea of the ‘evangelicals’ evolved to define a group of Protestant Christians that had little to do with the origins of their faith. Indeed, this group remain the greatest supporters of Trump who represents everything that Christianity is not. Such is the evolution of evangelism.

There are parallels between the evolution of evangelism and safety evangelism. We see this evidenced in the extremism of zero, that has been the mantra for global safety since 2017. We see it evidenced in the apocalyptic video ‘In the Blink of An Eye’ (https://youtu.be/BIhgJ93t0Jw?si=ChjxS4TZck81o-sq  ). We see it in the semiotic extremism of Safety (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-a-david-and-goliath-myth-or-safety-joke/). We observe it in each new re-invention of a failed slogan, eg. 1% safer. Indeed, some even declare previous slogans and fads they invented as problematic and confusing. But then in the same movement seek attraction to a new narrative and fad.

Much of the marketing of safety, is about selling safety as a commodity. But, there is no new method, no innovation, just the same old philosophy wrapped up in gold tinsel.

Without some Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), philosophical, ethical or political questions, much of this is not seen. But if you follow the money, you may see beyond the creation of new territory or a new narrative, to the pockets of the evangelist. When you gain such a realisation, you see the underlying philosophy of accumulation and materialism as bankrupt.

If you would like to learn how to do CDA, ethical and philosophical analysis, you can sign up for the free workshops in May: https://safetyrisk.net/lets-start-with-philosophy-to-better-understand-risk-free-workshops/