No one becomes wholly corrupt all at once; degradation proceeds by increments each of which seems tolerable.
Juvenal's line, and the classical statement of what safety research now calls normalisation of deviance. Degradation by increments is what makes each step defensible and the aggregate indefensible.
In practice
- An expenses culture moves from a rounded-up taxi fare to a family dinner over six years, and no year contained the decision.
- A safety practice erodes one deferred check at a time, and the shift log shows no day on which the standard changed.
- Standing
- The classical statement of what safety research now calls normalisation of deviance.
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- Proverbs that recur across cultures