Shocking events, such as disasters, wars, mis-treatment or abuseare serious attacks on the personal and social lives of human beings.The search for protection from these disruptive events is oneof the major motives of mankind. The goal of this remarkablebook is to acquire insight into the development and effectivenessof the tools which humanity has invented to cope with theseevents and how it will be able to deal with the crises and sufferingit is being faced with now. The thesis is that the drive to protectthemselves has made people more resilient against many of theseevents and empathy for the pain of other people has become thecore of their civilization.