Who's Looking Out for You? [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

The major theme of this work is that you had better take responsibility for your own life . . . because no one other than your family and you will . . . unless you develop a few friends along the way who want to help you.

If you already understand and accept that point, you will wonder why you should read the book. Well, you shouldn't. The book isn't aimed at you.

The book is aimed at those who believe that the powers that be (government officials, your religious leaders, corporation CEOs, celebrities, protestors, the media, leaders of minority groups and the legal system) are primarily looking out for you and that all will be well because of their care. Mr. O'Reilly uses lots of individual examples based on experiences from his reporting to show that not to be the case. If you have read either of Mr. O'Reilly's other books or watched his television show, you will be familiar with most of the examples.

I was somewhat unpersuaded by evidence drawn almost exclusively from the worst behavior of "responsible" people and organizations. Of course, there are bad apples. And of course, no one is perfect. And the larger the organization, the bigger mess it will probably make of what it is doing. But the world also has a lot of decent people who will go the extra mile to help . . . much as Mr. O'Reilly does with his reporting on outrageous situations. I suspect that most people would agree with Mr. O'Reilly's point if it were couched in more of a "question authority" perspective.

Of more interest to most readers will be the sections of the book where Mr. O'Reilly talks about his father (who trusted no one, and let that distrust get in the way of accomplishing his potential), his own youthful and career experiences, and his mea culpas for the mistakes in judgment he made along the way. If the whole book had had that autobiographical focus, this would have been a four or five star book.

As a book for helping the average person be more successful, the book would have been improved by shifting its focus a little more from hammering the usual suspects to providing detailed advice for fulfilling the key principles in the book. Also, his subject is usually treated by professionals like Dr. Phil, so you shouldn't put your hopes too high for Mr. O'Reilly's advice for self-realization.

Here are the key points from the early chapters: Beware of toxic people (people who are bad apples and are willing to hurt you); realize that your family will help you (but may not know how) no matter what you do; and you will greatly benefit from timely help from loyal friends whom you are willing to help as well.

In the tenth chapter, he raises the key points for you to act on:

1. Rely on honest self-examination because most people won't tell you what you are doing wrong.

2. Cut down on your mistakes.

3. Forgive yourself when you do make a mistake.

4. Work on your health (especially avoid smoking, heavy drinking, and drugs) by watching your weight, keeping clean, going to the dentist and act on the lessons of good nutrition and exercise.

5. Be willing to take independent action to get what you want . . . as long as it is an appropriate end to pursue.

6. Be tolerant of others.

7. Engage in becoming friends with people you respect.

8. Have spontaneous fun.

The points are not developed in much detail. You'll have to work out the details mostly for yourself.

The writing comes across as relatively unpolished and often seems like a transcription of thoughts poured out onto a tape recording rather than as formal prose. As a result, the book did not work nearly as well as The No Spin Zone to get his points across. In fact, by refocusing on many of the same individuals, the book comes across as a little redundant.

As a side point, Mr. O'Reilly clearly dislikes being characterized as a conservative, and spends time explaining his views to counter that perception. Based on what he said here and in the other two books, I would describe him instead as an outspoken advocate of his personal principles. I found myself disagreeing with few of those principles (the primary exception in our mutual agreements is his view that the U.S. doesn't need to consider what any other country thinks if any foreign citizens is involved in terrorist attacks on any American). If Mr. O'Reilly is thought by some to be a conservative, it is only because he believes that character counts . . . rather because he thinks we should move back into the 19th century (which he doesn't think).

As a final observation, Mr. O'Reilly seems willing to listen to opposing views . . . which is a fine quality in a journalist. He is also quick to acknowledge his own errors (such as believing too readily in the huge amounts of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein's arsenal). Although not always graceful in his way of expressing himself, we are fortunate to have Mr. Reilly out there trying to unearth injustices so that they can be corrected. I hope he finds a lot of them . . . because they do exist . . . and need to be corrected. I also hope that more people with informed opinions who disagree with him will appear on his show. We can all learn more when that happens.