There is no debate, Zero is absolute. Zero ideology is an extremist ideology
And yet if you criticise this extremist ideology you are called an extremist!
There is no compromise or dialogue in zero, Yet, in SPoR there is opportunity for dialogue, questioning, movement and learning. There can be none of this in zero where 1 is the wrong number.
Zero can only demand movement to itself. It is incapable of movement away from zero, this is its commitment. Such is the nature of extremism and cultic belief. In this ideology one witnesses the violation of the very basis of the human condition – fallibility, mortality, temporal, ephemeral, impermanent, imperfect, flawed ‘being’.
Zero cannot move anywhere otherwise it would have to accept some harm to enable movement. Zero can’t do that, because Zero is the ideology of Stasis. I discuss this in several of my books on zero:
When you call a global congress on safety a ‘zero event’ (https://visionzero.global/23rd-world-congress-safety-and-health-work-2023) you don’t need to debate how safety identifies itself as holding to an extremist ideology.
In SPoR, all are welcome to debate, move, learn and SPoR is happy to meet in the middle in dialogue, in dialectic and compromise.
Zero cannot move to any centre because it has only one option – zero.
Zero can never accept 1. There is no ‘middle’ or ‘centre’ for this extremist ideology.
For Zero, movement is impossible even though the very principle of ALARP accepts the reality harm and movement under the Safety Regulation and Act.
Similarly, the principle of fallibility accepts dialogue and meeting in the middle.
The message I often get is: Rob be reasonable and compromise with zero.
How strange because zero is incapable of compromise. Zero is incapable of movement. Zero cannot move towards me, I must move towards it.
I do not accept that ‘all injury is preventable’. I do not accept that ‘safety is a choice you make’. I do not deny fallibility and accept the necessity of harm as fundamental to normal human ‘being’. So in Zero, it is only the other who must move, not Zero.
Zero is also incapable of moderation, there is only zero. It is only others who must be ‘moderate’. The very meaning of the word ‘moderate’ is the avoidance of extremes! The message from Zero us thus: come to our ‘zero event’ and accept zero and Zero will accept you???? What kind of nonsense is this?
When you go to a ‘zero event’ you have already acknowledged the ideology of zero as valid otherwise you are a hypocrite. So, all the lies and deceit attached to zero now rub off on you with its stench (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-founded-on-deceit-and-lies/). You can’t compromise with zero, it only accepts compromise from you. You must move into its ideology, there is no option other than zero.
And if you criticise zero you are labelled an ‘extremist’ and requested to be ‘moderate’. Such a false request is only something Zero loves, knowing that its binary entrapment, unethical ideology and pathway to brutalism has you attending a ‘zero event’ (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-as-zero-the-perfect-event/).
What is even more crazy is that most safety practitioners don’t believe any of this! Our Zero survey confirms this (https://safetyrisk.net/take-the-zero-survey/ ).
So, there is no possibility of dialogue with Zero. Zero only has one script, founded on the erroneous idea that safety is defined as injury rates. All of the evidence demonstrates that such definition is nonsense (Amalberti etc).
Yet if you go to a ‘zero event’ you confirm not just the definition, but the ideology that comes with it. This is often, under the naïve idea that one can influence an ideology from inside.
There is no evidence in history that confirms the idea that ideology can be changed from the inside.
So, just look at the sponsors and promoters of this ‘zero event’ and ask, who is the extremist?
None of these groups are capable of compromise or dialogue. Such is the anchoring of the regulators and associations to the extremist ideology of zero. Zero is incontestable, zero is absolute, zero rules, but any critic is an extremist! This is how cults work (https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-cults-and-safety-zero/) on counterfactual reaction formation (https://healthcareinnovation.vermont.gov/sites/vhcip/files/documents/Work%20Sheet%203%20-%20Defense%20Mechanisms%20article.pdf).
Freud was right all those years ago, the best way to defend against any threat is to claim one’s position as its opposite. This is the same strategy we see now in the cults of religious right, the experts at disinformation and ‘alternative facts’ (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2021/653635/EXPO_STU(2021)653635_EN.pdf ).
The reality of fallibility and mortality is hidden by Zero in its nonsense slogans, delusional beliefs and extremist ideology.
However, if you would rather learn (move) in a way that is not extremist, where dialogue and dialectic is valued, you can study the positivity of SPoR (https://cllr.com.au/) and how to humanise risk.
There are free courses:
https://vimeo.com/showcase/4233556
https://vimeo.com/showcase/4883640
Free books: https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/
Free resources and videos: https://vimeo.com/cllr
But just follow the money of the zero cult and see where the priorities of ‘zero ideology’ take you? And the outcome is? Zero.
Nothing comes from nothing, such is the grand delusion of zero ideology: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/
brhttps://safetyrisk.net/zero-as-extremist-ideology/
Prompt