How Not to Be a C**t: An Inconvenient Guide to Becoming a Decent Human Being

You are not a dictator or a war criminal. You’re probably not even a villain. But under pressure – in traffic, meetings, politics or the family gathering – you might be more than a little craven with unrelenting narcissistic tendencies or in other words, a bit of a c**t.

J.C. Abi-Saab’s blunt, irreverent and uncomfortably honest book declares that modern societies aren’t being undone by monsters but by ordinary people – those who justify entitlement, cowardice and cruelty in their small, everyday decisions. No accountability, no self-awareness. Just the conviction that everything you do is completely justified.

It could be the colleague who weaponises policy; the activist who mistakes outrage for virtue; or maybe just the neighbour who demands fairness while dodging their share. Odds are, if it’s not one of them, it’s probably you.

This is not a twelve-step, self-help program. It won’t make you feel better about yourself; it will make you a better person for others. It asks one uncomfortable question: what would your workplace, your building and your country look like if everyone behaved like you?

Sharp, funny and deliberately confronting, How Not to Be a C**t invites you to stop pretending the problem lives solely in history books and recognise that it also lives in us. Societies do not collapse all at once. They decay when enough people decide they’re entitled to be the exception.