My goal in writing this book is not to try to instruct you or to indoctrinate you. It’s rather to present you with a menu of theories, reflections and certain facts concerning civilization and its difficulties in advancing to the next level. That next level, for me, would be to take heed of and to put into practice the 2600 year old Golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you . It’s a rule that everybody understands, but somehow, we have not yet succeeded to apply it at all levels of the world’s societies. Family is the institution where we apply it the most; although more in some than in others. The school is an institution where the golden rule is sacrificed in great part due to its coercive approach and its lame pedagogy. The government is the institution where it’s the least applied, due to corruption and abuse of power, and the omnipresent coercion towards other countries and towards its own citizen. Is it to say that we’re doomed and that there’s nothing to be done? I tried …and hope I succeeded in answering that question in this book.