Talk:Personal safety
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This page says nothing about the, I guess, American (U.S.) idea that people are in part responsible for their own safety. In the United States this is often handled by the carrying of weapons, lethal and non-lethal, the training in martial arts or personal defense, or working to remain vigilant where necessary.
I would question the inclusion of "human security" in the topic of personal safety. Human security is itself a contested topic, and I would suggest that the redirect is misleading. A more adequately fleshed out page on human security would be useful, perhaps with a link to the personal safety page.
I disagree with the nomination for deletion. I was looking for a page on the strategy of using zones or a zone system as a means of providing security for a home. I am aware of an author Massad Ayoob (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massad_Ayoob) who has written extensively for many years about topics such as the defense of a home. Also is the author Gavin de Becker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_de_Becker). This area of interest and need is very pragmatic and I question the suggested allocation of this topic to "human security".
For instance, from the de Becker page there is mention of the "MOSAIC system" and I recall from Ayoob's writing mention of an OODA loop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_Loop) decision cycle. There is a body of work and knowledge in this field which seems to have not yet been well articulated or categorized yet by Wikipedia.
My suggestion is that personal safety, defense, and self-defense include topics of strategy, theory, and awareness which are very much appropriate for inclusion in Wikipedia. Sousurveillance might qualify as a strategy? I also see "Security" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security) with categories on "Types" and "Concepts". MOSAIC (de Becker), OODA Loops and Zones of access, retreat or intrusion may need to be under concepts.
When looking for the proper category for the article request I was seeking to place, I considered the topic area of "Social Sciences and Humanities" as a possible best fit but it seemed inadequate. The semantics of security as a right or need to be provided for for the individual from some level of social organization is different than security as an inalienable right of self-determination and an area of knowledge involving the individual, family or group as an actor using awareness, theory / strategy, physical aspects of ones environment, communication, and preparation to provide for their wellbeing.
May I suggest "Physical Security" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_security) as a category with "Personal Security" as a subcategory. Thank you. Mothership 19:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Deletion
I am nominating this page for deletion as it does not conform to WP:FRINGE, WP: VERIFY (unsourced), WP:NOR, or WP:NPOV. It was made by an account that is owned by the person (Steve Mann) who created the concept of sousveillance, which makes this dangerously close to being a vanity page and at the very least makes it original research. Alternately, I would be fine with seeing a rewrite that is more balanced if someone thinks it's important that something be here. If that happens, there needs to be a discussion of aspects of personal safety other than sousveillance and other technologies, such as self-defense classes or human rights. However, I really am not sure that personal safety is an appropriate topic for an encyclopedia article (overbroad), but please feel free to make a case to me. Museumfreak 05:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
- I agree. There's only 2 links and they both go to the same page. It looks almost like some kind of viral marketing - there are a 1001 other ways to achieve "personal safety." -- RevRagnarok Talk Contrib Reverts 12:25, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
If it is going to be merged with anything, it might make more sense to merge it with Human security than Self defense. Originally I entered the two articles: "human security" as well as "personal safety" at the same time, as pertaining to the safety of the individual rather than the security of the organization or national security. There is already quite a bit of work on national security, but what I was trying to get at is the idea of individual security. I chose the terminology "personal" rather than "human" in order to try to be neutral ("human" suggests human rights issues and tends to get very political). I also thought that "safety" might be a better term than "security" because also the word "security" is very strongly politically loaded. If one takes the position that we need more security, this is often seen as a political stance, suggestive of security guards, whereas if one takes the position that we need more safety, it seemed to me that it would keep the article more neutral. I basically had an idea for an article and wasn't sure what to name it, "human safety", "personal security", "personal safety", or "human security" so I wrote the article with two names, one redirected to the other. Subsequently one of these grew into a long and well written article. Therefore if this article is to be merged, it should be merged with its re-direct/co-direct article "human security" and not with "self defense" because self-defense is not at all what I had in mind when I initially entered these two co-directed articles.Glogger 01:35, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
