We live in an ever more complex world. On a daily basis we must make more decisions about more kinds of things than people ever had to before in the history of the world so now more than ever we need to sort out the facts from the fantasies, the b.s. from the bullion. The book aims to prompt you to reflect on how properly critical or uncritical your thinking and judgment are about the many events of your everyday life and how much difference that makes to you and to the world. It is intended to make you more aware of the manipulations all around and how to deal with those so your life will become more lived out and less drifted through. Too often when you ask, How can they get away with doing that? the most realistic answer is that you let them do it because you were unaware of what was happening or didn't do anything effective to prevent it. This is an attention-getter, not a list of rules or formulas that will solve all problems and conflicts. It is intended to stimulate thought and discussion to find the best solutions to the problems since those must always be matched to the individual circumstances. It proposes that you overthrow the status quo in whatever places or ways things are stacked against your best interests. It advocates throwing out the ineffective, even if that is the traditional way, but urges such discarding only after careful weighing of the value and effects of such changes.