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The Twelve Big Lies of A.A.
by A. Orange
- 1. If you are having a
problem with drinking too much alcohol, then you have a disease
which only a spiritual experience will
conquer. (The
Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, page 44.)
- 2. You are powerless over
alcohol. You can't quit. Your life is unmanageable. There you are,
facing ruin again, and still you can't stop. The more you struggle, the
worse you get. Even if you quit drinking, we can prophesy that
you will suffer from strange
mental blank spots where will power and self-knowledge will be
useless, and you will start drinking again without even knowing what you
are doing. Your defense must come from a Higher Power. (The Big Book, 3rd
Edition, William Wilson, pages 41-42.)
- 3. Alcoholism is an
incurable, progressive disease, often caused by an inherited gene, and a
disease is respectable, not a moral stigma. (The Big Book, 3rd
Edition, Marty Mann, Page 227.)
No,
wait!
We changed our minds.
Alcoholism
is a moral failing, caused by The
Seven Deadly Sins, and natural
desires warping us, and instincts
running wild, and selfishness,
and self-will run riot, and moral shortcomings, and wrongs, and defects of
character, and defective
relations, and failure
to practice religious precepts properly, all of which must be confessed
to God and your sponsor.
- 4. We Alcoholics Anonymous
members are so wonderful that we have
saved millions of other alcoholics. We have a special ability to
help alcoholics, and can fix cases that even the most learned and
distinguished of doctors and priests and ministers and psychiatrists
couldn't fix. (The
Big Book, 3rd Edition, page 473.)
The
relative success of the AA program seems to be due to the fact that an
alcoholic who no longer drinks has an exceptional faculty for
"reaching" and helping an uncontrolled drinker.
So Moved, The Washington Post, no
author, 06-09-2002, page B03.
(We can control him. We'll teach him to surrender, and turn over
control of his will and his life to us.)
We
A.A. members all fortunate people who are constitutionally capable of being
honest with ourselves. We are naturally capable of grasping and developing a
manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. (The Big Book, 3rd Edition,
William Wilson, Page 58.) We spend our lives selflessly seeking and doing the Will of God. We
know what the Will of God is better than anyone else. We were Chosen
By God for our special mission. Not only that, we are very humble, too.
- 5. The Twelve Steps are an effective
treatment program for alcoholism, one that rarely fails, because faith
healing is really good medicine, and God performs miracles for us
Twelve-Steppers every day.
- 6. The
A.A. program is perfect. The only reason that it doesn't work for
99% of the people who try it is because they are all disgusting sinners who
won't give up their sinful ways and surrender to God. They are all
unfortunate people who are constitutionally incapable of being honest
with themselves. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing
a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. (The Big Book, 3rd
Edition, William Wilson, Page 58.)
- 7. A.A. and the Twelve Steps
are the
only way to survive
alcoholism. And everyone who is recovering from alcohol or drugs is
of course doing it with the Twelve Steps, in Alcoholics Anonymous or
Narcotics Anonymous, because there is no other possible way.
- 8. It isn't religious, it's
spiritual.
A.A.
is not a fanatical, irrational cult religion,
it's only a
spiritual fellowship.
Never
mind the fact that, after indoctrinating many beginners, Bill Wilson wrote,
"From
great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter ...
would presently love God and call Him by name."
(Twelve Steps and
Twelve Traditions, William Wilson, page 109.)
Never
mind all of the
state Supreme Court Justices and Federal District Court Judges who have
ruled that Alcoholics Anonymous is a religion, or engages in religious
activities; we'll ignore them.
When
Bill Wilson wrote something that was totally
insane, he wasn't really insane, it was
just an expression, and you don't understand what
the words really mean anyway.
And
Bill Wilson was living proof of the fact that you could drink two or three
bottles of Prohibition's infamous "bathtub
gin" every single day for many years and still not suffer any brain
damage at all.
- 10. You can believe in any
God you want, or none at all, in A.A.. You can have any
Higher Power or God you want, including a doorknob or a motorcycle,
and praying to such a Higher Power will restore you to sanity and take
away your desire to drink. That isn't irrational or crazy; it
works, it really does.
- 11. You must be an
agnostic or an atheist if you object to faith healing, insane
superstitious nonsense, and voodoo medicine as your alcoholism recovery
program.
- 12. It's okay to lie to
newcomers, and deceive
them about the true nature of A.A., if it will keep them coming
back. Also, we shouldn't really tell the whole truth about A.A. in open
meetings; it might confuse the newcomers.
"To
some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize the spiritual
feature on our first approach. We might prejudice them."
The Big Book,
3rd Edition, William Wilson, pages 76-77.
"There
is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against certain theological
terms and conceptions
about which he may already be confused. Don't raise such issues, no matter
what your own convictions are."
The Big Book,
3rd Edition, William Wilson, page 93.
Give
out the truth by "teaspoons, rather than by buckets."
Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age, William Wilson, page 75.
- 13. Nobody
can do it alone. Nobody can successfully quit an alcohol or drug
habit without a "support group" and attending hundreds of meetings
for many years, preferably for the rest of his or her life. And anyone
who successfully quits drinking alcohol on his own, without going to
A.A. meetings and doing the Twelve Steps, will suffer from a mysterious
disease which will turn him into a
"dry drunk."
You
are such a stupid loser that there is no way that you can quit by yourself,
or keep yourself sober. But a bunch of other stupid losers who are also incapable
of quitting or keeping themselves sober will keep you sober.
The
answer to all crises is, "Get to a meeting."
- 14. If you're not ready to
quit drinking completely, there's nothing you can do about a drinking
problem. Nobody can just cut back and drink in moderation.
- 15. Nobody can quit drinking
until they hit
bottom and are ready to surrender to the A.A. program. People who
refuse to surrender to their sponsor and the group and do what they are
told should go back out and do some more research on the subject.
- 16. Surrendering and being a
slave of A.A. makes you free. Dependency
on A.A. makes you independent. Confessing powerlessness makes you
powerful. Apologizing for your behavior your whole life, and confessing
everything and feeling guilty and humble about everything will give you
self-respect.
- 17. You need this. You need us
to shove our religion (that we won't call a religion) and its strange
beliefs and practices on you, because you will die if we don't. Right
now, your thinking is so messed up that you think you don't need this
program, but you will thank us later.
- 18. In A.A., nobody has any
power over anyone else. In A.A., everybody is equal, but some people are
more equal than others.
- 19. The Twelve Steps are all
about quitting drinking.
- Never mind the fact that the
Twelve Steps never tell you to quit drinking, or to help anyone else to
quit drinking.
- Never mind the fact that the
Steps don't contain any of these words:
- "quit drinking,"
- "recovery,"
- "abstinence,"
- "sobriety,"
- "health,"
- "happiness,"
- or "prosperity."
- Never mind the fact that 6
of the 12 steps refer to God, and surrendering to God, confessing to
God, begging God for miracles, praying to God, and seeking and doing
God's will. The Twelve Steps are still all about quitting drinking, not
religion.
- For that matter, also never
mind the fact that 7 of the 12 steps -- Steps Four through Ten -- are
designed to make you feel guilty: They are all about you listing and
confessing all of your sins, character defects, moral shortcomings, the
exact nature of your wrongs, and everyone you ever harmed or
offended. The Twelve Steps are still all about quitting
drinking; they are not the mind-bending guilt-induction
routines of a cult
religion.
- And never mind the fact that
Bill Wilson's Twelve Steps, and Frank Buchman's
procedures from which Bill derived those steps, strongly resemble the Red
Chinese program of brainwashing, with all of its guilt-inducing
"self-criticism" sessions.
- 20. You really are stupid and
evil. You are far too stupid to be able to quit drinking by yourself.
Your thinking is all messed up, and you can't trust your own mind. Your
character is full of defects. You are selfish and self-centered and
just want to be happy and feel good. Your true, innermost, nature is
that you
are inherently sinful and disgusting.
- 21. Treating people bad is
how you make them be good.
Tough
love programs work to save the lives of alcoholics and drug
addicts.
What?
That isn't twelve? Oh well, close enough. It's still more accurate than
saying, "It
isn't religious, it's spiritual."
* "It
works -- it really does." --The Big Book, page 88.
2. Conceptions:
that is bad English, "conceptions" are women getting pregnant;
"concepts" are the ideas in your head.
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Agent Orange working with www.AAdeprogramming.com
Last updated
19 September 2002.
The most recent version of this file can be found at http://www.oocities.org/ageorange/
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