9/4/10 We are animals on this planet. We've reached the apex (supposedly) of dominance due to our ability to adapt and overcome, and this is what every living creature (and its ancestors) that is alive on the planet thus far has also managed to do. Yet we are the only creatures who have created convoluted "self-help" programs, designed to save the weak amongst us from what would otherwise be an improvement through natural selection. Think about it. What if some species of fish or monkey started eating some plant that made them sick or incapable of properly functioning? What would happen to them? They'd die off and be replaced by a stronger, more capable creature. But us humans, we have now diverted from this process of natural selection by pandering to the weak, self-destructive and incapable. This would be great if those same organizations that claim to want to help others don't at the same time foster hatred and contempt for people with differing ideologies. As a result, the whole movement is of questionable value to humanity. We're breeding a new race of humans who give credit to non-existent things for their own deeds, who can't help themselves and need religiously-sponsored entitlement programs to be able to function as normal humans. This is not a good thing. And religion has never been responsible for improving the human condition; that is science's legacy.

9/3/10  Still looking for that easier, softer way? Had enough of that same old time - untested misdirection? No reading. No writing. No amends. No confession. No meetings. No ego deflation. No praying. No holding hands. Standard features of the program include:

• Listening to you without constant reference to the big book or steps.
• Free signing of your court slips without attendance.
• You don’t have to admit you are powerless or insane.
• Work only the steps you want, in the order you choose.
• No beating you over the head with the Big Book.
• Free solid brass doorknobs for your alter.
• Learn the secret of giving it away before you even have it.
• It’s your free will, you make the final choice.
• Free inventories.
• Why "walk the walk" when you can just "talk the talk?"
• Be just what you want. Who would want what they have?
• Limited service fee for removal of your defects and shortcomings.
• You don’t have to freely give it away, you can sell it.
• Private one on one spiritual awaking without belladonna.
• You don’t have to be constitutionally anything.  
• If you relapse it’s not your fault, the program takes the heat.
• There is never any mention of God. We are not a spiritual cult.

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9/4/10 Alcoholics Anonymousmay as well qualify as a mainstream cult. Factually, the AA organization and other 12 Step offspring like Narcotics Anonymous (NA), are in fact evangelical religious sects, enjoying the same tax dodge as churches. A typical AA meeting is conducted in a formal liturgical method: The attendees at said meetings must open by stating their names, and confess that they are alcoholics. The members chant the 12 Steps aloud as sanctioned by The Big Book -- the official "Bible" of AA. 'Twixt prayers and chants, each member is required to speak, usually a confession of any backsliding into "devil rum." Meek, depressed, and downtrodden individuals are often belittled and bullied by more aggressive members, especially if the individual is a female. Remember, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Midwestern businessmen from a different era, when women were looked upon as only fit to be housewives and doormats for the whims of the husband. (Rather like the views of many fundamentalists, today.) Women in AA, especially those perceived as having low self-esteem, are excellent fodder for predatory males in group sessions. Mental abuse is the norm for the downtrodden female, and actual cases of physical and sexual abuse have occurred. AA is trapped in a sexist and classist time-warp, and "uppity" women need not apply.

A problem drinker is encouraged from his/her first meeting to keep an open mind. Actually, what AA considers an open mind is anything but. An individual cannot deviate from AA dogma. A person conveying any differing opinion to those in The Big Book is castigated as being "in denial" by other members. Even relative social drinkers must confess aloud that they are alcoholics. The naïve and unaware initiates in AA are subjected to what is called "Boot Camp Indoctrination." In the armed services, recruits arriving for basic training in their respective branches of the military are subjected to mental and physical torment to break down individuality to the lowest level, then re-tooled into a new military standard (see the movie Full Metal Jacket for an excellent portrayal of this). The 12 Step program requires a person to hit rock bottom before they can truly see the light about their "disease." One must forfeit any esteem of one's being -- "let go, let God." No other treatment for their drinking problem is condoned. Alcoholics Anonymous is the only path to recovery, no glimmer of heresy is allowed. Just like religious fundamentalists, only their way can lead the AA member to the Promised Land of sobriety.

 

 

9/4/10 A.A. members often call outsiders things like "normies", "flatlanders", "pigeons", and "A.A.-bashers".

A.A. has a bad case of the "Us versus Them" mindset:

• "Normies" don't understand.
• "Regular people" don't know.
• "They" are just "A.A.-bashers", and "A.A.-bashers" don't tell the truth.
• "They" don't have a working recovery program.
• "They" don't have Bill Wilson's doctrines or wisdom.
• "They" aren't doing the Twelve Steps.
• "They" don't believe.
• "They" don't have faith.
• "They" don't know what it's like.
• "They" aren't part of The Fellowship.
• "They" aren't one of us.
• "They" aren't "our kind of people".
• "They" aren't part of "The Recovery Movement".
• "They" aren't Working the Program.
• "They" are "enablers".
• "They" aren't "spiritual".
• "They" have too much self-will.
• "They" aren't Friends of Bill.
• "They" don't want to know God.
• "They" aren't doing the Will of God.
• "They" are luring vulnerable alcoholics to their deaths by telling them that they can quit drinking without A.A. and the Twelve Steps.
• "They" will make alcoholics relapse.

Part of the reason for the devaluation of the outsider is of course fear — fear of criticism for being an alcoholic, fear of disapproval, fear that the outsider will not "understand" — "Only another A.A. member understands." Outsiders are dangerous and you can't trust them, but you will be safe inside the cult.

 

 

9/4/10 The sneering and dismissive tone adopted towards anyone with reservations about adopting the doctrine elaborated in the “Big Book” of AA is shown by this quote from “Doctor Bob” Smith:

“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you”.

One has to ask why AA has such a strong anti-intellectual bias. It can only be because it sees critical and analytical thought as threatening to its precepts. In other words, AA’s message simply does not stand up to rational examination; hence the intellect is treated with scorn and contempt to try to preempt such examination.
Fear of the intellect, as well as hatred and contempt for it, to the extent that the very word “intellectual” is a term of abuse, are typical of totalitarian states from Nazi Germany to Maoist China. They are also well-documented features of totalistic cults.

Sit down, don’t think, take to cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth.

 

9/1/10 The fundamental deception of AA is that it is an organization devoted to helping people defeat addictions. AA is not about recovery, AA is about AA. The First Tradition, which values the welfare of the group over its totally dependent members, is a red flag that is carefully shielded from public scrutiny. The steps themselves deceive the observer, seeming to convey an antidote for the degeneracy of addicted people. Ominously, the steps contain not even a hint on how an individual might cease and desist from the use of alcohol or drugs, but only instruct the member to stop trying to quit and shift that responsibility onto the cult and its deity-of-convenience, any Higher Power of one’s conception. This amorphous Higher Power, although called God, is entirely unique to AA, as it is intended to metamorphose into an Alcoholic’s God that intervenes at the level of voluntary motor control. “At times, there is no human defense against the desire to drink,” they explain, “but your Higher Power will protect you. Let go and let God.” Submission to the will of the Alcoholic’s God is the benchmark of working a good program, and is the antithesis of free-will, self-determination, self-will, i.e., denial. Since members are a self-selected group in the long-term grip of pleasure, continued intermittent drinking or using is the actual group norm, even though the stated norm is complete abstinence. Drinking bouts are then integrated as “relapses,” “slips,” or innocent symptoms of the group disease. This seductive, deceptive arrangement allows members to continue drinking, which they are impassioned to do, while appearing to be committed to abstinence. Essentially, AA is a drug-cult which holds various substances to be “desecrating sacraments” which are necessary for eventual cleansing of the soul. It is clearly not an organization devoted to teaching people any means to end substance addictions.

 

“If you want what we have and ready to go to any lengths...” Look around the room; take a good honest look, not an inventory. Look at each person. Don’t compare. Progress not perfection. He doesn’t own a car, he doesn’t have a steady job, she has a criminal record, she doesn’t have a drivers license, he has 2 outstanding warrants for his arrest, he doesn’t pay his child support payments, she doesn’t have a permanent place to live, he is a pedophile, he has no health insurance, she has poor hygiene, he  believes in the dogma, she doesn’t believe in God, he is severely depressed, she is on probation, he twice filed for bankruptcy, she rides a bicycle, he is a convicted felon, she is miserable, he is bi-polar, she is a cougar, he/she are psychopaths, he is suicidal, she has no money, he is not responsible, she has no true friends, he/she are members of a religious cult, he only speaks programese, he preys on the sick and weak in the rooms, he is a sexual predator, she is a liar and a fraud, he has been divorced 3 times, he is on food stamps, he is a con artist, she admitted she is insane and he admitted he is powerless to change on your own. It’s not your fault; just blame it on your alcoholism. And all of the above rolled into one could be your sponsor that you ask for advice and guidance. No wonder that the 12 steps have a 97% walk out rate according to the last survey done by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. Good luck working the 12 steps with your sponsor.

In 1960, Bill Wilson gave a speech to the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism. During the ensuing question and answer discussion, Wilson was asked why he did not use the term "disease" when he spoke of alcoholism in that speech. He replied,

"We AA's have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking it is not a disease entity. For example there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead there are many separate heart ailments, or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore we do not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Therefore we always call it an illness, or a malady—a far safer term for us to use."

Even the Big Book God himself, Bill Wilson, stated that alcoholizm isn't a disease. This kinds of shoots the shit out of what you hear in the meeting rooms. There are so many lies and contradictions within AA that you don't know what to believe.