We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice. Some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word "God" brought up a particular idea of Him with which someone had tried to impress them during childhood. Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate. With that rejection we imagined we had abandoned the God idea entirely. We were bothered with the thought that faith and dependence upon a Power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. (AA, pg 45-46)
The fact is that the program forces members to cram their idea of "God" into the Twelve Step formulat mantra, including a God who sees men and women as "alcoholics who have lost their legs."
In many books following the AA Book, the leaders of the program instructed individuals to run their lives by other people all the time, including their sponsors. Many times, these sponsors are sicker than the people starting out in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Bible does not record that individuals need to seek help from another person in order to break free of diseases, dysfunctions, or other perversions.
The LORD is bigger than Twelve Steps, and He invites every one of us to believe on Him whom He sent to die for us -- Jesus!
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6: 29)
Could it be any simpler?
Another passage speaks to the dangers of trusting in men, in other people:
"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." (Jeremiah 17: 5)
Yet for those of us who trust in Jesus Christ, we can rest in the peaceful power of the New Covenant:
"31Behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they
brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After
those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write
it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more." (Jeremiahj 31: 31-34)
Now, most people will answer: "I am not of the House of Judah or Israel."
God provides a Way, through His Son:
"12Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13For if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live. 14For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children,
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8: 12-17)
We are joined to Israel through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." (Galatians 3: 29)
Who needs dependence on man or man's programs, when you can depend on God, who gave His Son for us?
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Dependence on Man -- The Source of Anxiety
This sense of dependence flows from the notion that as an alcoholic, I cannot make decisions for myself, that I must look to someone else to lead me, to guide me through things.
Here are passages which emphasize the helplessness of alcoholics, just because an individual has difficulty with drinking, or with quitting drinking.
"We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
Here are passages which emphasize the helplessness of alcoholics, just because an individual has difficulty with drinking, or with quitting drinking.
"We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.
"We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition.
"Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking. But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time. We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so.
Numerous falsehoods pervade these staments. The argument that alcoholism is a disease, for example, when many people have broken free of alcohol addiction without resorting to AA or other curatives. This "progressive illness" in fact stems from the attempts of men and women to curb something which causes them great shame. Deal with the condemnation, and then the desire to drink will fall away.
"We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. . ."
Lost the control, lost our legs, lost, lost, lost -- man needs more than the power to overcome drinking. He needs life, and that more abundantly. The sense of shame within a person poses all the problems, and the solution to this problem is more than Twelve Steps, and yet the answer is much simpler than those Twelve Steps.
Yet a man who is lost, who cannot control his drinking, this is a man who needs someone else to explain things to him.
Some will protest that the AA book makes dependence on God the most important thing:
It is not the matter of giving that is in question, but when and how to give. That often makes the difference between failure and success. The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God. He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for. Nonsense. Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job - wife or no wife - we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.
Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house. (AA, pg 98)
Trust in God, yes, but clean house? The tenth step and on give the impression that the house will never be clean, that a person working the program will never stop working it. The house never gets clean, in effect, and a man becomes broken and frustrated, never able to find a sense of satisfaction that everything has been taken care of in his life.
AA Posits a False Identity, Which Creates Dependence
Imagine living your life in such a manner, that you often wondered if you were doing the right thing, and you feared the consequences of failure.
Such was the life that I had led for a long time, overwhelmed by the concerns that if I chose the wrong thing, then God would be angry with me, or I would get into trouble, or "something bad would happen."
AA teaches people that they have to be dependent, that they cannot trust their own thinking, because they are "alcoholics".
They are taught not to trust their own thoughts, their own feelings, their own intuition on many things.
Consider the following statements from the AA book:
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest." (AA, pg 58)
The premise of this passage suggests that if you cannot work this program well, if you find that you do not get sober, the reason is that you are not rigorously honest with yourself, and those who fail and end up dying, well, they were unable to escape their lying selves.
The rest of the page and into page 59 gives more staggering informationL:
Remember that we deal with alcohol-cunning, baffling,powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power-that One is God. May you find Him now!" (AA, pg 59)
Some other noteworthy passages:
"Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
Such was the life that I had led for a long time, overwhelmed by the concerns that if I chose the wrong thing, then God would be angry with me, or I would get into trouble, or "something bad would happen."
AA teaches people that they have to be dependent, that they cannot trust their own thinking, because they are "alcoholics".
They are taught not to trust their own thoughts, their own feelings, their own intuition on many things.
Consider the following statements from the AA book:
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest." (AA, pg 58)
The premise of this passage suggests that if you cannot work this program well, if you find that you do not get sober, the reason is that you are not rigorously honest with yourself, and those who fail and end up dying, well, they were unable to escape their lying selves.
The rest of the page and into page 59 gives more staggering informationL:
Remember that we deal with alcohol-cunning, baffling,powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power-that One is God. May you find Him now!" (AA, pg 59)
Some other noteworthy passages:
"Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.
We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed." (AA, pg 30)
Wow! Where do the writers of the AA Book get these arguments? "Conceded to our innner-most selves. . ." Imagine every day, waking up with the false premise of self, defined by a perversion. God has created us to be much more than a failing.
Then the argument that "the delusion that we are like other people" -- that very argument is itself delusional and has to be smashed. Once a person is pegged to a certain set of principles or ideas, everything else that the person thinks or feels will end up being fed through that distorted sense of self.
Monday, June 24, 2013
He Holds Us in Place, Not Ourselves
It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. (AA, pg 85)
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25)
AA is not a program based on God, but a program based on self. God, as we understood Him, is merely a prop for putting men and women into a set of steps which never end, a program which never takes a man anywhere but back to his failed self. Even in Celebrate Recovery programs, which hopefully are losing members faster than they get them, leaders will admit that they see before themselves nothing but a life of "forever recovering."
No, there is not higher power of my choosing, but rather a set of rules through which the Higher Power is filtered. In effect, men and women will end up worshipping themselves and their own efforts, even though they talk about God and "turning their will and life over to a Power Greater than themselves."
The Bible could not be clearer about what believers in Christ receive when the believe on Him whom the Father has sent (John 6: 29):
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)
We receive everything that we need in Christ. Paul did not pray for the fired-up Ephesian Christians to receive more, but to receive a revelation of all that they had, and by extension, what we have in Christ:
"17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, " (Ephesians 1: 17-20)
In Ephesians chapter three, Paul prays:
"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 16-19)
In effect, our job is not to hold onto God, even, but rather see how much God is holding us and to see what He is giving us as well.
Well did Jude, Jesus' half-brother, write to Christians, to all who believe on the Name of Jesus:
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25)
It's not our job to stay close to God. He already lives in us, He keeps us, and He is the one who presents us without fault before God, since we have been made the righteounsess of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25)
AA is not a program based on God, but a program based on self. God, as we understood Him, is merely a prop for putting men and women into a set of steps which never end, a program which never takes a man anywhere but back to his failed self. Even in Celebrate Recovery programs, which hopefully are losing members faster than they get them, leaders will admit that they see before themselves nothing but a life of "forever recovering."
No, there is not higher power of my choosing, but rather a set of rules through which the Higher Power is filtered. In effect, men and women will end up worshipping themselves and their own efforts, even though they talk about God and "turning their will and life over to a Power Greater than themselves."
The Bible could not be clearer about what believers in Christ receive when the believe on Him whom the Father has sent (John 6: 29):
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)
We receive everything that we need in Christ. Paul did not pray for the fired-up Ephesian Christians to receive more, but to receive a revelation of all that they had, and by extension, what we have in Christ:
"17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, " (Ephesians 1: 17-20)
In Ephesians chapter three, Paul prays:
"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 16-19)
In effect, our job is not to hold onto God, even, but rather see how much God is holding us and to see what He is giving us as well.
Well did Jude, Jesus' half-brother, write to Christians, to all who believe on the Name of Jesus:
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25)
It's not our job to stay close to God. He already lives in us, He keeps us, and He is the one who presents us without fault before God, since we have been made the righteounsess of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
The Source of Anxiety in My Life -- AA
I lived in fear for a long time.
I was always looking over my shoulder, afraid of doing something, or something being done to me.
I never understood, until recently, that the AA cult creates a sense of self-centered pre-occupation, one in which a man is always looking over his own shoulder, preoccupied with his next drink, or with his next slip in anything.
I often distrusted my own thinking. I was always afraid that some "ulterior" or "wrong motive" would bring me into bondage, that I would make a terrible mistake, or misplace something, or do or say something that would get me into trouble.
The AA cult teaches people that they cannot trust their own thinking, that they are alcoholics with a sick mind, a disease of the body and an obsession of the mind, if you will, which precludes all rational and acpaable thiniking and decisions.
I never drank heavily, yet my mother was so indoctrinated, that every problem and every solution would find an outlet in AA and the Twelve Steps.
Man has a deeper problem than his thinking, or his feelings. He has a sin nature overrun with death, and no amount of psychology, no amount of therapy and self-help efforst will ever assist a man in overcoming himself.
All that anxiety within me traumatized me for so long. I was afraid to do anything, since I would do something wrong and slip, or someone would take advantage of me.
My mother, as I have shared in previous posts, was infused with AA. She was working her steps, taking her inventory even toward the end of her life, before she died, much of due to the terrible program which induces a monomania of perfectionism and self-assessment to insane depths.
How long can a man look at himself and try to make himself better, when all his self-regard makes him see how hopeless his condition has become? We cannot make ourselves better, no more than a cancer patient can operate on himself and live. We need more than power, we need life, and that more abundantly.
The source of anxiety in my life was a life of trying to look out for myself and look at myself at the same time, trying to live, and making sure that I lived right. No wonder I was worn out and filled with frustration and fear. What kind of life is that, where a man is constantly looking at something that can never be fixed, yet feels compelled to fix it?
"Acceptance is the answer to my problems" wrote the Doctor on Page 444. My ass! How can you accept something, anything if it's not true?
No one can be defined by their alcoholism. To define yourself by a failing is just a failure that will never fail to fail you. Does that thought in itself make you feel anxious? Now you understand the point that I have been making.
I was always looking over my shoulder, afraid of doing something, or something being done to me.
I never understood, until recently, that the AA cult creates a sense of self-centered pre-occupation, one in which a man is always looking over his own shoulder, preoccupied with his next drink, or with his next slip in anything.
I often distrusted my own thinking. I was always afraid that some "ulterior" or "wrong motive" would bring me into bondage, that I would make a terrible mistake, or misplace something, or do or say something that would get me into trouble.
The AA cult teaches people that they cannot trust their own thinking, that they are alcoholics with a sick mind, a disease of the body and an obsession of the mind, if you will, which precludes all rational and acpaable thiniking and decisions.
I never drank heavily, yet my mother was so indoctrinated, that every problem and every solution would find an outlet in AA and the Twelve Steps.
Man has a deeper problem than his thinking, or his feelings. He has a sin nature overrun with death, and no amount of psychology, no amount of therapy and self-help efforst will ever assist a man in overcoming himself.
All that anxiety within me traumatized me for so long. I was afraid to do anything, since I would do something wrong and slip, or someone would take advantage of me.
My mother, as I have shared in previous posts, was infused with AA. She was working her steps, taking her inventory even toward the end of her life, before she died, much of due to the terrible program which induces a monomania of perfectionism and self-assessment to insane depths.
How long can a man look at himself and try to make himself better, when all his self-regard makes him see how hopeless his condition has become? We cannot make ourselves better, no more than a cancer patient can operate on himself and live. We need more than power, we need life, and that more abundantly.
The source of anxiety in my life was a life of trying to look out for myself and look at myself at the same time, trying to live, and making sure that I lived right. No wonder I was worn out and filled with frustration and fear. What kind of life is that, where a man is constantly looking at something that can never be fixed, yet feels compelled to fix it?
"Acceptance is the answer to my problems" wrote the Doctor on Page 444. My ass! How can you accept something, anything if it's not true?
No one can be defined by their alcoholism. To define yourself by a failing is just a failure that will never fail to fail you. Does that thought in itself make you feel anxious? Now you understand the point that I have been making.
I was Brought Up in a Cult
Yes indeed, I could not get to a place of recognizing how serious this is, until recently.
I was raised in a cult, I was raised in AA, I was raised to take my inventory, to work the Twelve Steps, I was told by mother, who was an AA aficionada with a capital A (or capital AA).
Everything was about the Twelve Steps. She even introduced me to a calender drawn with child-like stick figures, which outlined the Twelve Steps. Imagine that -- indoctrinating little children to see themselves through the distorted prism of the Twelve Steps.
Everyone was either an Alcoholic or in Denial, according to my mother. For all the pretenses of working a program, she became one of the most resentful, bitter, frustrated, and empty people I had ever known. As a child, I never thought good or bad about AA, since it was my mother who was sharing this program with me. I assumed, as do many abused children, that my mother would never force on me anything that was bad, evil, negative, or destructive. I do not believe that she had ever intended to harm me, but forcing the Twelve Steps, and using the Bible to justify such a terrible cult, all created more problems in my life.
Such is the evil that is AA.
For so long, I never quite understood why my life was not advancing, why things were not improving in my life. I had grown older, yet not grown up. The very promises about fear and anger, about overcoming character defects and all the rest, these promises never seemed to materialize in my life. For all the talk about resentment being the Number One Offender, I found myself easily resentful. For all the talk about "Outgrowing Fear", I found that fear was all-overgrown in my life.
My mother taught from youth to work the Twelve Steps, to run everything through that silly, willy-nilly set of rules.
I have forborne sharing about my mother, and how deeply she was involved in the program. Yet following all the reading and all the research, all the stories which I have shared, and which others have shared with me, and the dire consequences of this program should anyone insist on working it, I have see no further reason to hold back.
AA is a cult, one which the state has legitimized because courts order people to go to the Twelve Step meetings as part of achieving sobriety.
With a growing understanding of economics, and the dangers posed by state power, I have less reason to respect the claims of legitimacy which the government, which the state gives to anything. Just because a judge tells someone to go to AA, does not make the program legitimate. How many other social programs initiated, or instigated by state, create or foster the very ills they claim that they can eradicate or reduce?
I was brought up in a cult, and that cult was AA, yet like many people who lived in the meetings, who visited the rooms, they believe that the program is a mere alternative form of recovery.
The facts borne out by research, the statistics which expose the high recidivism of the program, the alarming rate of suicide and abuse in meetings, plus the fact that a mere five percent get and stay sober, often with the crucial assistance of medication, should be enough for anyone to run from an AA meeting, and not look back.
I was raised in a cult, I was raised in AA, I was raised to take my inventory, to work the Twelve Steps, I was told by mother, who was an AA aficionada with a capital A (or capital AA).
Everything was about the Twelve Steps. She even introduced me to a calender drawn with child-like stick figures, which outlined the Twelve Steps. Imagine that -- indoctrinating little children to see themselves through the distorted prism of the Twelve Steps.
Everyone was either an Alcoholic or in Denial, according to my mother. For all the pretenses of working a program, she became one of the most resentful, bitter, frustrated, and empty people I had ever known. As a child, I never thought good or bad about AA, since it was my mother who was sharing this program with me. I assumed, as do many abused children, that my mother would never force on me anything that was bad, evil, negative, or destructive. I do not believe that she had ever intended to harm me, but forcing the Twelve Steps, and using the Bible to justify such a terrible cult, all created more problems in my life.
Such is the evil that is AA.
For so long, I never quite understood why my life was not advancing, why things were not improving in my life. I had grown older, yet not grown up. The very promises about fear and anger, about overcoming character defects and all the rest, these promises never seemed to materialize in my life. For all the talk about resentment being the Number One Offender, I found myself easily resentful. For all the talk about "Outgrowing Fear", I found that fear was all-overgrown in my life.
My mother taught from youth to work the Twelve Steps, to run everything through that silly, willy-nilly set of rules.
I have forborne sharing about my mother, and how deeply she was involved in the program. Yet following all the reading and all the research, all the stories which I have shared, and which others have shared with me, and the dire consequences of this program should anyone insist on working it, I have see no further reason to hold back.
AA is a cult, one which the state has legitimized because courts order people to go to the Twelve Step meetings as part of achieving sobriety.
With a growing understanding of economics, and the dangers posed by state power, I have less reason to respect the claims of legitimacy which the government, which the state gives to anything. Just because a judge tells someone to go to AA, does not make the program legitimate. How many other social programs initiated, or instigated by state, create or foster the very ills they claim that they can eradicate or reduce?
I was brought up in a cult, and that cult was AA, yet like many people who lived in the meetings, who visited the rooms, they believe that the program is a mere alternative form of recovery.
The facts borne out by research, the statistics which expose the high recidivism of the program, the alarming rate of suicide and abuse in meetings, plus the fact that a mere five percent get and stay sober, often with the crucial assistance of medication, should be enough for anyone to run from an AA meeting, and not look back.
"Mr. Brooks" -- More Proof that AA Does Not Work
One movie that focuses on Alcoholics Anonymous and Twelve Step Recovery, Mr. Brooks, follows the double lift of a businessman who by day cherishes his family and runs a reputable business, but by night engages in serial murder.
The whole narrative rests on the revelation, which Mr. Earl Brooks (played by Kevin Costner) shares with his doppelganger evil alter-ego (played by William Hurt): He's an addict; he has to kill people.
In some scenes in the movie, Mr. Brooks attends AA meetings in churches, where he introduces himself and tells people, "Hi, My Name is Earl . . ., and I am an addict.
I had not seen this movie for years, but I remember enjoying the tortured conscience of the respectable businessman on the outside, who had to reconcile his desire to kill. Then he discovered that his daughter, implicated in a murder at her college campus, also has "what he has", a genetic disposition to kill people.
While the move most likely was not taking digs at AA or the Twelve Steps, the outcome of the film, plus the presentation of a man who attends meetings yet still never kicks the habit, set off a different set of signals for me.
Once again, proof positive that "AA" does not work.
Yes, I realize that "Mr. Brooks" is just a movie, yet how fascinating that a tortured character, who is a terrible criminal, goes to AA meetings to "deal with his issues", yet he never breaks free. He keeps on killing people, enough that even when he wanted to put an end to his broken, evil life, he manages to seduce a creepy mechanical engineer, who witnessed him kill a couple, only to play him out and kill him, and then implicate him for the serial murders which he had committed.
The most chilling yet telling quote from the movie comes from the alter ego:
Brooks mouths "The Serenity Prayer":
Mr. Earl Brooks: [voice-over] Oh God... God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Then the alter ego responds:
Marshall: [voice-over] Why do you fight it so hard, Earl?
AA is all about defining people by their sickness, and then setting them up for a life of overcoming something that they are defined by. Such a circuitous life of "overcoming" a self which will never be overcome is destined for failure, or death.
Just look at Mr. Brooks!
The whole narrative rests on the revelation, which Mr. Earl Brooks (played by Kevin Costner) shares with his doppelganger evil alter-ego (played by William Hurt): He's an addict; he has to kill people.
In some scenes in the movie, Mr. Brooks attends AA meetings in churches, where he introduces himself and tells people, "Hi, My Name is Earl . . ., and I am an addict.
I had not seen this movie for years, but I remember enjoying the tortured conscience of the respectable businessman on the outside, who had to reconcile his desire to kill. Then he discovered that his daughter, implicated in a murder at her college campus, also has "what he has", a genetic disposition to kill people.
While the move most likely was not taking digs at AA or the Twelve Steps, the outcome of the film, plus the presentation of a man who attends meetings yet still never kicks the habit, set off a different set of signals for me.
Once again, proof positive that "AA" does not work.
Yes, I realize that "Mr. Brooks" is just a movie, yet how fascinating that a tortured character, who is a terrible criminal, goes to AA meetings to "deal with his issues", yet he never breaks free. He keeps on killing people, enough that even when he wanted to put an end to his broken, evil life, he manages to seduce a creepy mechanical engineer, who witnessed him kill a couple, only to play him out and kill him, and then implicate him for the serial murders which he had committed.
The most chilling yet telling quote from the movie comes from the alter ego:
Brooks mouths "The Serenity Prayer":
Mr. Earl Brooks: [voice-over] Oh God... God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Then the alter ego responds:
Marshall: [voice-over] Why do you fight it so hard, Earl?
AA is all about defining people by their sickness, and then setting them up for a life of overcoming something that they are defined by. Such a circuitous life of "overcoming" a self which will never be overcome is destined for failure, or death.
Just look at Mr. Brooks!
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