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Author Topic:   The philosophy behind The Twelve Steps
mick
Member (Idle past 4986 days)
Posts: 913
Joined: 02-17-2005


Message 16 of 108 (399788)
05-08-2007 3:34 AM
Reply to: Message 6 by Nuggin
05-07-2007 3:06 PM


Re: Sinking the ship while it's in the dock
nuggin writes:
I don't understand the reasoning behind starting a program of self correction which begins with the admission that you are unable to achieve self correction.
By starting from the view point of - I am broken and only someone else can fix me, you've already given up the entire game.
In the case of AA, the point of the game is not to aid recovery but to maintain a big church of life-long AA members. I see it as a nice case of natural selection operating on culture. If your addiction cult is able to cure people and let them leave the group, then you will never be as successful (numerically) as an addiction cult which makes life-long members.
Consider what would happen to Catholicism if you only had to go to Church once, at the very end of your life, and simply carry out a full confession. That's no good! So they have to invent a load of bullshit (different celebrations throughout the year, different Saint's days, etc) to keep you an active member your whole life.
You get exactly the same in the AA - you have to accept your complete powerlessness and the fact that you will ALWAYS be an alcoholic, as the very first step in the process. And they will wheel out poor old members of fifty-years standing, who have attended AA meetings twice a week for decades, to show what you should be aiming for.
Mick

This message is a reply to:
 Message 6 by Nuggin, posted 05-07-2007 3:06 PM Nuggin has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 17 by Nuggin, posted 05-08-2007 3:47 AM mick has replied

  
mick
Member (Idle past 4986 days)
Posts: 913
Joined: 02-17-2005


Message 18 of 108 (399793)
05-08-2007 3:58 AM
Reply to: Message 17 by Nuggin
05-08-2007 3:47 AM


Re: Sinking the ship while it's in the dock
nuggin writes:
Not having been a member or known a member, is there a profit scheme here?
Do people pay to be members? Do they ask for donations? Do the founders sell books?
Or is this just a created culture overwhich I extend some power sort of thing
I doubt they make a financial profit - they sell books but at a relatively cheap price (15 dollars for their bible, "the big book", which is hardback and has about 350 pages).
I don't think AA has much of a "purpose" other than replicating itself (just like me!)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 17 by Nuggin, posted 05-08-2007 3:47 AM Nuggin has not replied

  
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