Idealism is the unrealistic pursuit of perfection. In philosophy, Idealism privileges the world of ideas over matter and energy.
Hannah Arendt wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), ‘the self-compulsion of ideological thinking ruins all relationships with reality’.
This is what the utopian language of zero does.
The language of ‘believe the impossible’ common to safety (https://www.consultdss.com/content-hub/belief-in-the-impossible/) is the metaphysical language of religion. Such language is not ‘insightful’ but delusional.
The language of impossibility, utopia and ‘all accidents are preventable’ is evidence of a mental health disorder (https://share.upmc.com/2021/05/perfectionism-linked-to-anxiety/).
Speaking nonsense language to fallible people about achieving perfection disrupts relationships, damages discourse, alienates empathy and sets idealism as the agenda for engagement.
No-one wants to confess the realities of everyday life, its messiness and stressors to a person who believes in perfection. Such an approach encourages silence in the face of superiority. Perfection can’t listen, neither can it learn. Only fallible people learn. Only people who confess to mortality and vulnerability have empathy.
If ever something goes wrong in normal human day to day living, the last person one wants to talk to is the perfectionist who spruiks the goop of perfection. Anyone who dreams of utopia is the last person who should ever be sent to an incident. Utopian agenda can never help listening, cannot observe mortality or connect with the normality of fallible, messy day to day living.
If you believe in the spirit of zero (https://safetyrisk.net/the-spirit-of-zero/), where Armageddon is beaten, where limbs grow back according to zero, where the impossible is made truth and where all harm is banished, you make yourself unapproachable.
The quest for utopia, is the quest for the destination of nowhere (https://safetyrisk.net/the-rage-for-safety-utopia/; https://safetyrisk.net/safety-utopia-as-abuse/).
Belief in the impossible, utopia, idealism and perfection is the best way to alienate oneself from reality and others. This is the quest for zero.
The opposite is the case in the iCue method of SPoR (https://safetyrisk.net/conversational-icue/, https://safetyrisk.net/concept-mapping-risk-icue/, https://safetyrisk.net/spor-and-disposing-of-bad-myths/).
In SPoR, we dispose of the nonsense language of zero and utopian language and discourse of perfectionism and learn to deal with the realities of everyday living.
In SPoR, we learn how to help, to be approachable and facilitate learning in others.
In SPoR, we learn to listen and be positive and practical in what we do, accepting that life is messy and things sometimes go wrong.
In SPoR, we help others be prepared for those times.
In SPoR, we learn to do what works (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety/).