The main message of 1001 Laws of Survival is very clear: someone (if not everyone) is out to get you and you'd better study the 1001 rules of life systematically if you want to survive. As a rule by definition should be stated or taught clearly enough so that everyone affected knows what is expected, the author calls his rules laws. Laws, by definition, are neither understood nor taught, except to a privileged minority as a tool for controlling and abusing the rest of us. Also, rules should be reasonable and enforceable. Both reason and enforcing are beyond the scope of this book. However, in spite of an extremely cynical view of life expressed by the book, what finally emerges is that we can survive if we take life with a pinch of salt. Well, at least for a while. This is not a definitive edition as it excludes the laws that are just too close to the truth and are thus as dangerous as weapons of mass destruction.