An Obadiah Slope column
Vale Dr Reason: Obadiah says let’s give thanks for psychologist Dr James Tootle Reason, the man who came up with the “swiss cheese model” of accident causation. He died this month on February 5, 2025, at the age of 86.
The “swiss cheese model” likens human-made systems to layers of Swiss cheese – the sort of cheese that has holes in it. Each part of a human system that attempts to be safe – for example, flying an aircraft – has holes in it, just like a slice of Swiss cheese. However, other parts of the system are meant to catch the problem. Layers of Swiss cheese stacked against each other, each with holes, represent each part of the system, forming multiple “safety barriers.” Any hole that lines up through multiple layers allows a threat or problem to become a reality.
Credit: Ben Aveling / Wikimedia
Professor Reason was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the UK’s 2003 New Year Honours list “for services to Reducing the Risk in Healthcare.” He was a member of both the Psychological Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society – which it stands to reason (sorry) was likely a unique combination.
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Hat Tip Anthony Venn Brown
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How the pilgrim made progress: this week saw the anniversary of the publication of The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan in 1678. Many readers will recall he wrote the book while in jail for preaching while not being an Anglican minister – Bunyan was a Baptist preacher. But reader Andrew Conacher sent Obadiah a post from author Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegon, and the radio show A Prairie Home Companion) with more detail: “During his years in jail, Bunyan made thousands of shoelaces to help support his family financially. But he needed something else to do, so he began to write The Pilgrim’s Progress. A denn was another word for jail, and The Pilgrim’s Progress begins: ‘As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream.'”
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Arc-angels? If you tap in “arc” and “conference” online you will find two conferences listed. One is this week’s “Alliance for Responsible Citizenship” gathering, which generated headlines from London this week, with speeches by Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and Nigel Farage with a theme of calling for a reconstruction of Western Civilisation.
The other is a conference on church planting by the Association of Related Churches, another conservative group – but theologically conservative rather than politically conservative although they probably lean right. Their agenda is church planting and growing existing churches. (Obadiah is aware that the ARC model does not work for everyone, and has had the usual problems of a fast growing church movement.)
Obadiah asks “Which one will make the most difference?”