Why the name “Practical Handbook of Countermeasures”?

I chose this title because freedom can no longer be taken for granted today. Freedom of action, self-determination, and personal responsibility are being systematically restricted, while conformity and passivity are increasingly being sold as virtues.

This book is neither an analysis nor an appeal, but rather a response: concrete countermeasures for real challenges. Practical stands for implementable tools instead of abstract theories, handbook for structured, everyday use.
My goal is to empower readers to consciously preserve and strengthen their personal independence.

What prompted me to write this handbook?

The triggers were the restrictions on fundamental rights during the coronavirus crisis and the way politicians and the media dealt with criticism of the measures. I therefore took a close look at the legal framework and the influence politicians have on the media and authorities. At that time, I had the idea of writing a book about defending against manipulation in order to enable people to recognize manipulation in the media and defend themselves against attempts to influence them. The other topics arose logically in the course of my research, because I always take a holistic, systemic approach and wanted to cover all aspects that are important for increasing individual opportunities for self-determination.

What qualifies me to write such a handbook?

I was CEO of an international IT company for many years. Before that, I worked as a truck driver, debt collector, and gained experience in advertising, publishing, as a technical editor, application developer, and author. I am certified as an “ethical hacker” and, together with other activists, have successfully fought against gouvernmental data retention twice. Digital self-protection and privacy have always been important issues for me.

I have been very fortunate in my life to always have the support of my wife and a good team at my side. Today, I am in my early 60s, a man of independent means, and I write books that aim to help people maintain their freedom, personal responsibility, and ability to act in an increasingly complex, crisis-prone, and alienated world.

I have learned not to view problems as simple cause-and-effect relationships, but as systems of interconnected influencing factors, information flows, and feedback loops. In the many conversations I had with experts from a wide variety of fields for this book, this holistic view opened up new, often unexpected perspectives, clarified apparent contradictions, and revealed new connections. My strength has always been in quickly grasping complex issues, understanding different points of view, and distilling them down to their practical usefulness.

This approach also gave rise to the concept behind this book. It is not about abstract concepts, but rather practical answers to real challenges. It is precisely this aspiration that characterizes the Practical Handbook of Countermeasures.

Am I an “old white man”?

I find this label discriminatory and offensive. The combative term “old white man” violates the fundamental humanistic principle of individual dignity. It replaces the assessment of a person based on character and actions with a generalized collective stereotype—and thus commits exactly the same mistake it purports to criticize.

I am well aware of my privileges, but they were of a different nature than the combative term suggests. As the first person in my family to graduate from high school in the early 1980s, my privilege was not my skin color or my gender. My privilege was growing up in a society that provided functioning institutions: a high-quality, tuition-free school system, a high school diploma that still meant something as proof of achievement, and a job market that offered a young person with diligence and determination a wealth of opportunities for development and advancement. This privilege is not a personal achievement for which one must justify oneself, but a social achievement that should be desired for every human being. To reinterpret it as an innate, exclusive characteristic of a particular group is a dangerous distortion that obscures the true causes of inequality: the decline of the very institutions that once created opportunities for all.

Philosophically, the term is symptomatic of an ideology that declares empathy impossible and replaces rational debate with the interpretive authority of victim groups. This is not progress, but a step backward from the achievements of the Enlightenment.

My alternative is not to deny discrimination, but to advocate consistent individualism: every human being deserves dignity, respect, and to be judged according to their behavior, without collective discounts in one direction or another.

How do I use artificial intelligence when writing my books and articles?

I write my books myself. But I use AI extensively for preliminary research, for scientific sources, and to summarize and better structure my often rambling rough drafts. The dialogue with AI helps me to sharpen my own arguments and get to the point. I also used AI to create the illustrations: I designed the layout of the book titles and the illustrations and infographics in the text myself, but I created the smaller images on each title page and the decorative titles for each chapter using ChatGTP, Dall-E, and Canvas.