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===== PROGRAM, WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING PROGRAM =====

Read enough slogans and a thinking person discovers that the Program of
AA. is not defined. The Slogans about the Program discuss working the
Program, whatever that means. But as a person delves deeper, they
discover that the Program is not about how to stop drinking
destructively. If the whole point of the existence of A.A. is to help
people to stop drinking, then why does it focus on "new life" and
"being happy and free". These slogans betray the subtext which is to
convert people to a set of religious beliefs.

=== Program? What Do You Mean by Program? ===

These slogans belie the fact that A.A. is about religion. As one slogan
puts it, "it is not about getting sober." So what is A.A. about?
Another slogan states "this is a God-give Program." How does God get
involved with giving people a program to stop drinking? What these
slogans point to is how the A.A. Program can to be and what happens
with the newly converted. What can people expect from A.A.: "how to
relate to yourself" and "be happy". This is a religion that thrives on
being selfish and ridding people of selfishness. Small wonder the
believer ends up confused and tense.

A.A. is not a Program to get sober. It is a program to live your life
successfully and be happy once you get sober.

God gave us a kit of spiritual tools. It is up to us to use them to
build a durable shelter.

A.A. is a self-help Program, but you can't do it by yourself.

In A.A., I get an owners manual to go with my new life.

This Program changes the way I relate to me. That is what I am trying
to do, change the way I relate to me.

This is a God Given Program. The Fellowship isn't perfect but the
Program is perfect.

=== This is a selfish Program. ===

Once the person enters A.A., they cease to exist as an individual. It I
fine to have a "we and us", but it also needs the "I" as well. A group
of "we"s and no "I"s constitutes a totalitarian organization that does
not allow room for individual choices or actions. These coupled with
the first ones display the schism in A.A. thought. How can it be a
selfish program when it is a "we" program? It cannot be both and make
sense. However, A.A. is not about community building. The emphasis is
on building and maintaining the tight A.A. group but not living in the
larger world outside of A.A.

This is a "we" Program.

It isn't "me" and "you" anymore; it is "we" and "us."

Remember to give and receive ES&H: Experience, Strength and Hope.
(Encouragement, Strength, and Hope.)

We're not promised anything.

These two make no sense. They are an example of the perverse inanity
and compulsion of A.A. to come up with things for people to remember.
A.A. is chockfull of these. SO much so that members think that they are
clever but absurd is the word.

HOPE = Hang On! Peace Exists...

Make the solution so big, that the problem does not exist.

Working The Program

In A.A, there are no clear cut directions. The slogans contradict each
other and other aspects of the program. About the only clear direction
that members receive is: Attend meetings, Read the Big Book, and Do the
Steps.

Why is there such confusing double talk? What directions and have-tos
are they referring too? What is this vague talk of doing it? Now these
ones have conflicting advice working the program. You take what you can
use but you are required to DO IT. What is up with 'no musts' but
"have-tos"? I guess it ranks with 'spiritual, not religious'. In the
world of Webster's Dictionary, have-tos are musts. There is no
difference. What are these directions that people have to follow? Are
they ones in the Big Book or the ones that the old timers tell us? `Tis
confusing. So if you don't get the program right away, life is hard.
But that is o.k. since the program will get you. So if the program will
get you, then why all the instructions?

Take what you can use and leave the rest

When all else fails, follow directions

You are not required to like it, you're only required to DO IT.

AA has not musts but it has a lot of have-tos.

A suggestion is a subtle command.

Ask us how we did it; then do what we did.

Work the program hard; life is easy. Work the program easy; life is
hard.

Don't worry, if you don't get the program right away, it will get you.

What is THE PROGRAM? Who defined THE program? Then if I am working the
program, then everyone else do not have to? How does that work? If a
person is working their program, then what is this shit sandwich? If
people are following directions, what is going on? Whenever A.A. can
express a vulgarity, it does.

Well according the steps, that `matching outsides and insides' is not
the result of working the Program or practicing a program or dancing in
the light. You are supposed to relate better with your fellows
(according to Wilson.) So again what is this program? What is THE
Program?

Don't work my program, or your program, work THE program.

If you are working the program, no one else needs a program.

When my insides match my outside, I'm practicing a good program.

This program changes the way I relate to me. That's what I'm trying to
do, change the way I relate to me.

Just accept, don't expect.

Keep the focus on yourself.

Identify, don't compare.

Are you comparing your insides to someone else's outsides

If you are eating a shit sandwich, chances are, you ordered it.

Take the program seriously, not yourself.

Memories.....

Why keep the memory green? Why all the emphasis on the past A.A. tells
people not to regret the past. First remembering your last drink is a
way of scaring people to remain in A.A. If you change your life and
follow a path, of course you will be self-correcting. Why remember
things that cause shame and guilt? Why should I remember my last drunk?
Unless of course, it is the reason to keep me in A.A.

DUES = Desperately Using Everything but Sobriety

Remember your last drunk

Remember when

Keep it green

Keep the memory green

Listen and You Shall Hear?

What is interesting about these slogans is how they complement each
other. Basically you are supposed to only listen. The zinger is - as
"the dying can." Exactly what does a dying person suppose to hear?
Deliverance? Deliverance from what? These are religious concepts not
health concepts. The "waist up" adds the zinger of alkies are sexed
craved maniacs who don't listen. My one question about these slogans is
'who does the talking, if everyone is listening'?

Learn to Listen; Listen to Learn.

Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth

Sit down, shut up, and listen.

Listen only like the dying can.

Three suggestions for making an A.A. speech: be interesting, be brief,
be seated.

The program is worked from the waist up.

O.K. Already, it works. So why do we need all of these slogans to
convince that it does work? Is that because we have doubts? So instead
of answering these doubts, we get told a silly slogan of 'it works'.
However there are caveats placed in them, 'if' - Notice the if - it
doesn't work unless you work it. Well aren't you supposed to be doing
precisely that? So why say it? Because IT DOESN'T WORK, PERIOD. END OF
DISCUSSION.

If it works ... don't fix it.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Keep coming back, it works if you work it.

Keep coming back.

Keep coming back, it works!

Keep coming back, it works. Don't go away; it works even better.

AA will work if you want it to work.

It works, it really does!

It gets better.

If you want what we have and you're willing to go to any lengths to get
it.

As you can see the Program is about "asking for help", but not asking
how it works. In short, all smoke and mirrors. What is this Program? I
do not see anything useful in the slogans that tell me what I don't
already know.

Telephone therapy? I thought that A.A. was anti-therapy. Oh that is
right, anti-therapy when it means not going to A.A. Help is also a
person away. However, the "help me" is useful information but there is
the response: Let me help you. They don't seem to explore that idea
outside of sponsoring or carrying message. But what is help? How does
A.A. define help? Talking the Program with someone. That is about as
much help as A.A. really offers. Sending people to meetings. That is
it.

GOYA = Get Off Your Ass

ASK = Ass-Saving Kit

Help is a phone call away

The smartest thing an A.A. member can say is, "Help me."

Make use of the telephone therapy.

Pick up the telephone before you pick up a drink.

Fatalism Strikes, Denial is in the House.

These gems connotes that somehow everyone is a candidate for A.A. The
subtext is that we of A.A. know what is best for everyone else. The
world according to A.A. is divided into A.A. members (The Sober Few),
The Still Suffering Drunks, Dry Drunks (people who stopped drinking
without A.A.), and Earth People (non-drinkers). However, most members
of A.A. do not believe that Earth people really exist. Earth People are
a convenient fiction to make the A.A. members feel that the Program
works for some but not for all. It is to explain the failures in the
Program. Only alcoholics benefit from the Steps, heavy drinkers do not.
Only A.A. knows the difference between the two. However, in reality
when talking to potential members, everyone is an alcoholic.

YANA: You Are Not Alone

YET: You're Eligible Too

We have a chair with your name on it.

Qualifications for me to help you: 1.You have to need it, 2. You have
to want it. 3. You have to ask for it, 4. You have to ask me.

(What is "it"? The subtext of this is "grovel you pitiful person you".
Grovel and let me be the glorious one to lead you to the light.)

"Denial" is the means of getting people into A.A. "You're in denial" is
a favorite saying of members confronting someone who has questions.
"Denial" in the A.A. sense is an active verb that covers doubts and
questions. If a person has doubts, they are "in denial" that they have
a problem. "In denial" is a thought stopper and commands people to be
quiet. People who have questions are caught on the horns of a dilemma.
If they are wondering if they have a problem, then they are "in
denial." If they are told they have a problem, and they say no, they
are also "in denial". Someone else decides whether a person is a
destructive drinker. "In denial" in A.A. speak means that the person
does not admit to having a problem. Saying that someone is in denial is
a method to coerce people into A.A. meetings and into the A.A. Program.
No one can escape from assimilation into A.A.

DENIAL: Don't Even kNow I Am Lying

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

We push denial out the door and it sneaks back in through the window.

(Contrast the A.A. saying: When God closes a door, He leave a window
open.)

How? Whatever.

HOW = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness: that's how we do it

HOW = Honest, Open-minded and Willing

How it works: Half measures availed us nothing.

How it works: Half gallons availed us nothing.

However, what is interesting is the combination of honesty,
open-minded, and willingness. It is almost as if they are equal like
equality, liberty and brotherhood or faith, hope, and love. But are
they? What does honesty have to with willingness? I understand the
connection with open-mindedness. If you are honest with yourself about
being a bigot, then you will become more open-minded. Actually the
logical sequences here is a=b, b=c, therefore a=c. (For example: I am
Bill. Bill is a man. Therefore I am a man.) The problem is lies in
which Bill are we talking about? Do we mean all Bills, me, or the man
standing over there. In this case, the sequence is set up to get
someone into the A.A. belief system.

How does it work? It works just fine.

Act as if......

Fake it until you make it.

Why should I care? Actually the subtext is interesting -- why ask how
does it work if it does. Unless of course you are swapping meaning here
-- the how of the way as opposed to the result. AA does a lot of that
swapping. Again what is 'it'. What is the reference of it? The program?
Make it? Again we see the contradictions of A.A. made plain. If you are
honest, you can't fake it.

If I build a bridge and spend a great of effort and said bridge
collapses, who gets blamed for the outcome?  Well, this is a
ready-made slogan in the Program to avoid responsibility.  On the
surface it seems sensible when being a parent raising a difficult
child.  But when you are expected to produce results such as in
building a porch, you are responsible for the outcome.

We are responsible for the effort not the outcome.

How does `it' happen? Focus and action result in a miracle. What does
that have in common with `make it happen'? Either results come from
efforts or from a miracle. How do miracles occur? By their very nature,
they just happen usually by a greater force than the human. Miracles do
not occur as a result of hard work or action.

Change is neutral. However A.A. assures that change is only good if it
results in a greater belief in the Program. Since A.A. presents its
members to be ignorant savages, they need these slogans to drum into
their dear little heads the true meaning of action. As more of these
slogans are examined, a picture of who A.A. considers to be a member
slowly emerges. The typical member is an egotistical parasitic maniac.
But of course, not everyone who drinks to excess has that personality
type. Some are lonely shy people, others are bored, and still others
have mental illnesses they medicate by drinking.

Make it happen

Change is a process, not an event.

ACTION: Any Change To Improve Our Nature.

Focus + Courage + Willingness to Learn = Miracles

Therefore our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances
as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are.

These two slogans urge people to move forward.  But sometimes letting
go of old ideas is a bad idea.  Some old ideas are reliable and
good.  Before the new can be embraced, it has to be examined.
However, in A.A. speak, these slogans mean that a person must give up
their reservations and embrace the Program.

Go For It.
Let go of old ideas

I had problems with these ones. What do they mean?  Do they mean
anything or is it simply noise filling air?  They don't seem to carry
any meaning. It seems to me that A.A. is in love with word twists and
transferred meanings.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired.
If nothing changes, nothing changes.

If you don't change, you'll be begging for change.

Learn to change, change to learn.

This slogan embraces a certain aspect of thinking.  The "coming
around" means whatever you do will return to you.  A sense of life as
a circle. A.A. presents the standard Western European style of thinking
as an arrow moving upward movement in its Steps and other writings.
However, upon further examination, the Program with the Steps are a
guide in the circular way of thinking or Ancient Greek style of
thinking in which life was a corkscrew moving upwards. Once a person
commences on the Steps, they are caught in an endless cycle of
self-improvement and character defect removal.

What goes around, comes around.
These are phrases of failing.  These slogans point to things that
people need to look at in their thinking.  In the Program, people use
these phrases a lot.  Why?  It could be the potential member's
initial resistance to the program? Or they are the reasons why the
Program works for some people but not for others. There has to be a
reason for failure of implementing a `simple Program'.

What if

Yeah but

If only

Formula for failure: try to please everyone

When I first heard this, I did not understand it.  Then I realized
that it meant the usual "say what you mean and mean what you say."
However, in A.A. meetings, this slogan is used as a thought stopper.
Basically this slogan is thrown at people who talk a good Program but
do not do the Steps.  Problem is how do people know who is doing what?
What makes a good Program is hinted at but never defined.

It is easy to talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk

What Happens When You Work the Program?

So if I don't grow, you won't love me? If I love myself, then I gotta
go. Why should I care if you love me? Does it really matter? Why should
it matter? We are a collection of people. Do we need to love each
other?

Live in the Solution.

You can't speed up your recovery, but sure can slow it down.

May you be blessed with a slow recovery.

If we don't grow, we gotta go.

Let us love you until you learn to love yourself.

These are all about sharing.  What the group suggests is that sharing
is good.  However, how does sharing work?  When sharing, you are
keeping something and giving something to someone else.  The Program
says to its members: "share or die".  So sharing is involuntary.
Giving is different from sharing.  Giving does not mean you get it
back.  However, these slogans are subtle in A.A. urging members "to
give away the program" (i.e. do missionary work).  According to A.A.
old timers, a person grows in the Program by how much they share it
with non-A.A. people. Program in the 12-Steps becomes defined as being
happy and having pain, both rather nonsensical in context together.

It isn't the load that weighs us down -- it is the way we carry it.

Count your blessings
Share your happiness
Share your pain
The only thing we take from this world when we leave is what we gave
away.

I have always hated this one.  What is it that is supposed to begin
with me?  Why me?  What has to begin with me, why can't it end with
me or continue with me?  What is this beginning that needs me?  The
program?  Carrying the message?  Is that more like continuing and not
beginning.  What is new that needs me to start it along?

Let it begin with me.
Hidden Agendas and Irresponsible People

Proof of how A.A. mangles the English language and tries to use
doublespeak to confuse and enlighten members can be also found in the
writings of Dr. Bob Smith, the co-founder of A.A. He plays fast and
loose with language as much as Wilson does. Smith comments on the
Eleventh Tradition:

"Since our Tradition on anonymity designates the exact level where the
line should be held, it must be obvious to everyone who can read and
understand the English language that to maintain anonymity at any other
level is definitely a violation of this Tradition. The AA who hides his
identity from his fellow AA by using only a given name violates the
Tradition just as much as the AA who permits his name to appear in the
press in connection with matters pertaining to AA. The former is
maintaining his anonymity ABOVE the level of press, radio, and films,
and the latter is maintaining his anonymity BELOW the level of press,
radio, and films - whereas the Tradition states that we should maintain
our anonymity AT the level of press, radio, and films."
(from the February 1969 Grapevine)

According to Smith, all people who CANNOT read and understand English
are excused since they are in all probability stupid.  Of course,
Smith knows that the only people who understand the Eleventh Tradition
are he and a precious few others. He slaps everyone else in the face.
The rest is not plain to anyone else who does understand the English
language. Smith uses prepositions for directions for something that has
no space. When talking to reporters, a person either speaks to them or
not. A group general has a designated speaker. If someone asks a famous
person if they are in A.A., the answer would be `no'. However if a
famous person chooses to say they are a member, then that is that their
decision. However, the individual does not speak for the group.

However the quote from Smith shines a light on a darker aspect of the
concept of anonymity. Being anonymous is how many groups such as the
KKK and the Aryan Nation exercise their dark agendas. As long as there
is no exposure, then they can accomplish much such as the terrorists
who blow up themselves and others.

A.A. has a hidden agenda also. If the members are unknown to the
public, then A.A. itself does not have to answer to the general public
about the many failures and great amount of repeat members that occurs.
Also having anonymous members helps the drug and alcoholic treatment
industry as well. Many of the treatment centers are run by counselors
who are required to have membership in a 12-step organization. Many of
these counselors have no training in therapy or social work. They have
only their years of membership. A.A. benefits from this relationship.

Officially A.A. disclaims all association with treatment centers.
However, one of three main sources for members in A.A. are the centers
themselves. In areas without treatment centers, membership numbers are
lower. (The other two sources are sentencing by judges or being sent by
EAP representatives.) The centers promote only the 12-Step message and
ideas on alcohol and drug addiction. They require A.A. or N.A.
membership for aftercare. The two entities coexist from early A.A.
times, Dr. Silkworth ran a clinic for alcoholics where Wilson was a lay
therapist.

The other aspect of A.A. hidden agenda is the promotion of the 12-Step
religion and folk cures. The A.A Program has nothing to do with aiding
people to stop drinking destructively. Instead, the Program proceeds to
convert people to a New Age religion that has Christian elements.

A.A. is not concerned with people's privacy, which is different from
anonymity. Privacy and confidentiality is from which safety and
dignity. Privacy asks from accountability where as anonymity fosters
irresponsibility. A.A. is accountable to no one and encourages its
members to face their wrongdoings.

Carry On

Members of A.A. are urged to go and get people to come to meetings.
They are told to do this in order to stay sober. The myth that A.A.
started with "one drunk talking to another" prompts people to believe
that is how A.A. functions.

You can carry the message, but not the alcoholic.

Pass it on.

Daniel didn't go back to the lion's den to get his hat.

A strange thing happens to people who remain in A.A. Their thinking
becomes clouded and unoriginal. People actually are proud to say,
"Everything I know, I learned in the Program." Somehow that does not
bode well for the rest of us. Also people, according to these sayings,
actually get worse not better. They become more dependent on A.A. as
they continue in their membership.

Nothing I'm saying is original. I'm not making any of this up.
Everything, I know I've learned in this Program. I don't have an
original thought in my head.

The longer we are in the Program, the worse our stories get.

The longer I'm in the Program, the lower my bottom seems to get.

Again the contradictions of Program speak. First we get sober because
we have to within the subtext of using the A.A. program. Awhile in
A.A., a member is informed that A.A. is not a program to get sober. So
what does a person use to get sober if not the A.A. program? Actually,
the subtext of this slogan is interesting - A.A. is not about stopping
drinking but successful living. What is that? Making more money?
Winning a Nobel Prize?

The progression is a subtle one of "have to, willing to, and want to".
Mot people stop drinking because of all three. There is no progression
since all three are present in the person's decision.

Today I soak up A.A. the way I used to soak up alcohol.

With a stomach full of A.A., you won't have room for beer.

First we stayed sober because we have to

Then we stay sober because we are willing to

Finally we stay sober because we want to

MEETINGS FOR LIFE, NO EXCEPTIONS

Meetings are so important to the working of the program, that the
slogans are full of dire warnings if you don't go. Along with sponsors,
meetings are a way to indoctrinate the person into the 12-step way.
Meetings are necessary to the A.A. way of life.

Most groups that require regular attendance usually tell people why.
They are usually teaching something to people or expecting the person
to work on a group problem. Attendance guidelines are up front. The
groups that do not, such as the Boy Scouts, generally are transparent
enough that people understand the need for regular attendance. For
example, Boy Scouts meeting impart information on how the members can
earn various ranks.

However, A.A. does not require regular attendance, not does not it
define regular attendance. Depending on the slogans and whom you talk
too, regular attendance is every day, once a week, includes coming
early or staying late. Moreover, A.A. does not tell members why regular
attendance is needed. And it is not transparent to people trying to
understand what is regular attendance. In short, the whole thing is set
up to throw people off. They come to rely on the group to decide
something as basic as how often they need to attend the group.

A.A. slogans on meetings are simple, direct, and give absolutely no
reason why meetings are so important. The only reason that is hinted at
is that the member will drink and die.

Actually this slogan equates that if you go to enough meetings, you
will get a job. Does this mean that many A.A. members were unemployed?
How do they get this job? The subtext seems to say: the meeting comes
first, the job second. Actually, people are expected to go to a lot of
meetings in lieu of family responsibilities.

A job is something that happens to you on the way to a meeting.

I don't understand why anyone would have coined these two. However,
since sex seems to be a problem in A.A., people tell a lot of sex
jokes. The concept of Thirteen Stepping was coined to described
Wilson's activities of picking up women and hitting on them during A.A.
meetings. What strikes me is that people in A.A. treat sex and sexual
matters in a flippant manner instead of the seriousness that they
merit. They remind me of children who just learned how to talk dirty.

A meeting is like an orgy. When it is over, you feel better, but you
are not sure who to thank.

MMM = Meetings, Meditation and Masturbation (recommended for the first
year)

Just Because....

These are the instructions for people who are starting out. Actually,
they are cult instructions to divorce the person from their life and
immerse them into the cult completely. The 90/90 came from treatment
centers who wanted their patients to remain in aftercare. Actually,
since treatment centers are hot beds of 12-step programs, this was
really a method to indoctrinated people into the A.A. cult. What is
curious about these slogans is the reason why you need to go to a lot
of meetings. The last one is revealing in that A.A. is not about
stopping drinking.

Why does the reasons for meetings change and mutate? However, the
subtext is to frighten people into attending as many meetings as
possible. Why is that? What does A.A. demand such rigorous attendance
more than many churches and civic organizations? Meetings are where
people are indoctrinated into A.A. ritual and thinking. The shifting
reasons and urging to attend as many as possible is standard cult
practice.

Bring the body, and the mind will follow.

90 meetings in 90 days ... 90/90

Try it for 90 days, if you don't like it, we'll gladly refund your
misery.

Seven days without an aa meeting makes one WEAK.

If you only need one meeting a week, you may have to go to five of them
in that time to find out which one it is.

Go to enough meetings and you still may not stop drinking; your
drinking however will be ruined.

All of these are the same doublespeak -- nobody knows why they go to
meetings, only that they must go. But again why? The slogans do not
address why a person needs to go to meetings. What happens at meetings
that are so important? It is almost that whatever happens at meetings,
nobody understands. But the slogans urge people to attend meetings just
because. No particular reason, just because.

We go to the meetings for all sorts of reasons, but we don't know what
they are, so we keep going to meetings.

If you are not getting mad at meetings, you are not going to enough
meetings.

The time to attend a meeting is when you least feel like going.

You have to go to these meetings until you want to.

Go to meetings when you want to, and go to meetings when you don't want
to.

If you are thinking about going to a meeting, go to the meetings, and
then think about it.

People Matter, Not.

I was never much for meetings after meetings or before meetings. I had
too many other things to do and too little time to spend with people I
barely knew. However, what is evident in these slogans is that people
are important. PEOPLE MATTER! In order to get the program, you have to
know the people and develop friendships.

Actually A.A. never uses "friendship"; it uses "fellowship" instead.
What exactly is "fellowship" and why is it used? Fellowship is a word
used by religious groups to denote their congregations. The use of this
word points to the religious nature of A.A. In A.A., people are
encouraged to form bonds with only the group and their sponsor. If you
become one with the group, then it is more difficult to leave. It is
also more difficult to be an individual. So you use the group to make
basic life decisions for yourself.

But why is it important to spend so much time before and after
meetings? Is A.A. also a social club as well? They do have social
events. The subtext is that if you spend more time with the people of
the program, then you will become tied to them. Become tied to them
means again you can't leave without leaving them behind. Also if you
spend so much time with the people of the program, then you have little
time to form friends outside of the program. Actually, I do not think
of people in the program as friends since they were only there for one
thing only. People rarely paired off for friendships, romances yes,
friendships no. People rarely went to basketball games unless it was a
sponsored A.A. activity. The longer that a person remained in A.A., the
more their social skills declined since they were spending so much time
with their A.A. group.

Fellowship is the meeting after the meeting.

Get to the meeting early and go to the meeting after the meeting.

20/20 come 20 minutes before the meeting, stay 20 minutes after.

If you don't have home group, you are homeless.

Who Cares?

People, who go to meetings, find out what happens to people who don't
go to meetings? How does that happen? Do they have an army of
detectives who scour the countryside for relapsed members? Do they
issue a weekly report on who lapsed and who didn't? Do they pray for
all the strayed members? Actually, it is plain old gossip -- true and
untrue. People conjecturing of what happened to so and so without any
facts.

Also this begs the question: Do people who don't go to meetings really
want to know what happens to people who don't go to meetings? Or do
they really care?

People who don't go to meetings don't find out what happens to people
who don't go to meetings.

Again is there a more genteel way of saying go to meetings no matter
what? If you are in dire straits, then you need to take care of your
family responsibilities and other responsibilities. You don't need to
waste the time going to a meeting to hear other people talk about
whatever. Besides if you miss this meeting, you go to the next one. Why
the dire threat of "if you don't go when you have an emergency, you
won't go ever again"? Is this a matter of cult programming which is any
time away from the cult gives the person a chance to reclaim their
thinking?

If your ass falls off, pick it up, put it in a paper bag, and carry it
to a meeting.

My ass was on fire.

Not drinking is coupled with meetings. It is direct correlation similar
being married and having babies. If you want to stop drinking, you go
to meetings. If you want to go to meetings, you stop drinking. How are
the two related? Can a person stop drinking without a meeting? A lot of
people do stop cold turkey. Can you drink and still go to meetings? Why
is drinking coupled with thinking? How does thinking lead to drinking?
How does going to meetings stop thinking? What does not getting married
have anything do with anything?

Don't drink and go to meetings.

Don't drink, don't think, and go to meetings.

Don't drink, don't think, and don't get married.

Don't drink, read the big book, and go to meetings.

These next two slogans are absurd. Whatever meaning they have is lost
on many people.

Those who get around, stay around.

(Get around what? Travel around the country? Attending many meetings?)

Meeting makers make it.

(Make what? Make brownies? Make lace dollies?)

Show up to meetings, remain quiet and you will grow up? How does
`shutting up' balance with 'Share or Die!'. There lots of slogans on
how people are supposed to share at meetings. Either they are silent or
they are sharing. Which is it? How does showing up to meetings make
people more mature? Actually, it does because the person learns to be
at a place at a specific time. They also learn to be obligated to a
group.

But what is maturity? How is that achieved? The subtext of this slogan
is that people in aa are immature. It is A.A.'s job to mature them. I
thought it was A.A.'s job to sober them. Being sober in the A.A. sense
is different than being mature. A.A. side steps the notion that
maturity is being responsible for one's actions with their disease
model of drinking and promotion of the idea of powerlessness.

Show up to grow up.

Suit up, show up, shut up, grow up.

Skip A Meeting, And Die!

A.A. is full of implied and open death threats. If a member leaves,
they will either die, go to jail or be committed to a mental
institution. Skip meetings and they will drink again, and Gasp, DIE!
How do meetings keep people from drinking? What happens at the meeting
that stops people from drinking? AA is full of slogans equating meeting
attendance with stopping drinking. But what is the mechanism at play?
How does a group of people prevent the members from doing destructive
things? Is it magic or a commitment to the group? What are the A.A.
group's obligations to its members?

Meetings do not seem to prevent people from drinking. They actually
encourage it by rehashing feelings of wanting to drink and by repeating
drinking stories. Members at the meetings do not explore the idea of
stopping to think about drinking. "Not drinking" means to constantly
live in fear of ingesting alcohol by eating rum cookies.

When you start to skip, you start to slip.

If you came into an A.A. meeting looking for recovery, will find
exactly that. If you came looking for a reason to continue drinking,
you'll eventually find that too.

These slogans imply that in A.A. not everyone gets sober. The raffle
idea plays into the daily meetings notion. Get more raffle tickets and
one's chances of winning increases.

That is how a meeting a day does this. Go only weekly or monthly and a
member will not get sober.

But this begs the question, how does a meeting a day keeps the detox
away? Does magic happen at meetings? A.A. meetings do have a
ritualistic aspect to them that seems to imply magical unseen forces at
work. What happens to people who do not believe in magic?

AA is like a raffle; you must be present to win.

A meeting a day keeps the detox away.

If you don't go to meetings the rest of your life, you will relapse or
die.

I have heard a lot of good things said. Now so what? Do I go home and
think about these good things? Do hearing these good things keep me
from drinking? What does A.A. mean by 'good things'? What is a bad
meeting? What is implied with this 'good thing'?

It has been a good meeting so far.

I've heard a lot of good things said at this meeting.

Share or Die, Be Silent or Die

A.A. tells people to be silent and listen. "Show up and shut up" is the
best example of this. Then you get the slogans telling people to "Share
or Die!" A.A. cannot have it both ways. However, there are two subtexts
to these messages. The first is that new people do not talk, only old
timers talk. Information, ritual, doctrine is passed in this way. The
second is the more the group knows about you, the more bonded you
become to the group. Also sharing in the A.A. sense becomes a sense of
group coercion, since people are urged to share only "proper things"
such as how A.A. saved tem. Improper things would be saying that a
sponsor is not needed or that a member needs to believe in a higher
power. The subtle aspect of these sayings is that members of A.A. do
not have friends to talk to. They have only the people they know at
meetings as their confidents.

AA meeting is where losers get together to talk about their winnings.

HOPE = Hearing Other Peoples' Experience

It takes the good and bad A.A. meeting - the good and bad A.A. talk -
to make this fellowship `work'.

The opposite of listening is waiting to talk.

Talk or die.

If you pass, it's your ass.

Say what you mean, but don't say it mean.

I'd rather hear you share about the same thing a thousand times in
meetings than learn you were sharing it in a bar.

SPONSORS: LEADERS IN DARKNESS

A.A. continues without Wilson through sponsors. Sponsors are the A.A.
priests or ministers. They are vital to the transplanting of the
program to future generations. Sponsorship is about is forming a new
person's ideas and life and mold it into the A.A. way of life. Without
the sponsor system, many people would not stay. Sponsorship offers
long-term members power to control others. The carrot for members is to
stay long enough to become a sponsor.

Sponsors offer a sense of false friendship. It is not a friendship of
equals but one of parent-child. I knew a woman who just had a baby and
was not taking calls at times. Her sponsor chided her that she was too
busy to talk to her sponsor and that being a new mother was no excuse
for daily phone contact. The woman was shamed to call more often.

However, there are people in A.A. who really do want to help others.
But they are few and far between. Many sponsors do have good intentions
but end up passing on the flawed system of the 12-steps. The sponsor
system is really one of control and indoctrination.

How does a sponsor help a person? Friends have respect of the person
themselves for they embrace the reality of the person. They do not
negate the person. Sponsors in A.A. are not really do help a person.
They are there to get the person to the 12-steps. If the person needs
to see a therapist, the sponsor generally will discourage the person.
They deny the reality of the person. Good A.A. sponsors who really care
about their sponsored have the problem of funneling the person's
problems into the prism of the 12-steps or letting the person find
their own way. It is a conflict that is hard to resolve.

The sponsor system of A.A. is based on the Oxford Group's spiritual
checkers. Wilson did not split with the OG until 1937 over personality
conflicts. Dr. Smith's group in Ohio did not split off until 1939 over
conflicts with the Catholic Church. However, A.A. kept many OG
practices such as inane slogans, examination, public confession, and
spiritual checkers. After praying for God's guidance, a person was
supposed to go to an older and wiser member to tell them what they
heard.

Sponsor slogans beg the question of what sponsors are about and why
people need one. The stress is on the new people to get one but
everyone is urged to use one. In medical studies, a clue emerges.
People who sponsor other people tend to do better than the ones
sponsored. The sponsor system is for older members to stay sober
themselves. Again it is a selfishness that does not extend itself to
the other person.

Smart Sponsors, Stupid Drunks

This combined with the SPONSOR slogan suggests that everyone has to
have a sponsor or be one. Why must everyone be a sponsor or have a
sponsor? Is it for reasons of passing on A.A. doctrine on to someone
else? The other thing is that A.A. looks down up having a Catholic
priest helping someone or a doctor. Somehow using these people is not
the same. But why have a sponsor if not to learn A.A. doctrine? However
the sponsor system ends up not being suggestions but requirements. And
they are not offering suggestions but instructing people.

SPONSOR = Sober Person Offering Newcomers Suggestions On Recovery

Sponsors: have one, use one, be one

Being an alcoholic is like being trapped in a box, and the instructions
for getting out of the box on the outside of the box. You need someone
to read them to you and you must listen.

A sponsor is someone who holds up the light, while you dig.

It is not enough to say get a sponsor unless there is a reason to. What
is the reason? What is so important about getting a sponsor? If you
combine this with the ones about calling sponsors or drink, then you
have your answer. If you have no sponsor, you will drink again. If you
are a sponsor, you will drink again. If you have the Big Book as your
sponsor, then you need to get a human sponsor. In short, you are
screwed no matter what you do.

How does reading the Big Book replace calling a sponsor? Actually, it
is the same process, however there is no one threatening or urging you
to do various A.A. duties. But if your Big Book is a sponsor, then why
get a human sponsor? Why be a sponsor if the Big Book is sufficient?

You are just going to drink again. Sponsor is of a parent to a child.
If I did not have my sponsor, I will be drunk. On the surface, it seems
like a statement of friendship. I don't know where I would be without
my friend. I am lost without these people. They are of great help to
me.

Get a sponsor.

I don't know where I'd be without my sponsor.

People who sponsor themselves have fools for sponsors.

Most A.A. people spend more time deciding where to have lunch than in
choosing a sponsor.

Your Big Book is your sponsor too.

What is your sponsor supposed to do? Are they supposed to baby sit you?
How is telling your sponsor about your desire to drink going make you
stop drinking? Why can't you call a friend or relative about your
desire to drink? Why only a sponsor? Also, how does not telling a
sponsor lead you to drink? If you tell your boss about your desire to
drink, do you drink or not? What is so magical about a sponsor that
causes people to stop and start drinking?

Call your sponsor before, not after, you take the first drink

Tell your sponsor, or you will be telling it to a bartender.

GAYS = Go Ask Your Sponsor

(Is this a subtle slap at gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered
people? Is this some sort of backhanded acknowledgement that they
exist? It is interesting that they translated the word into a matter of
sponsorship. Is this to tell people that they cannot discuss their
sexuality except with a sponsor while heterosexual people can openly
discuss their sexuality?)

All Good Things Come To....

If I am a waiter, then the chef will served me when the time comes?
Actually, the reverse is true. When you are a sponsor, you seem to get
out of yourself. However, you are more into yourself since you are
telling the other person what to do. It is not serving anyone except
you.

When you are a sponsor, you get out of yourself. If I serve, I will be
served.

The following slogan is awful on many levels. First, many organizations
are nice to new people since the people are checking the organization
out. They try to be welcoming to the new person. This slogan suggests
that A.A. members stomp all over new people unless there is a reason
not to. What is so threatening to the established A.A. member from the
new person? Actually, it is because the new person asks questions in
their desire to learn more. Often times these questions are
unanswerable or embarrassing to answer since they expose the A.A.
fraud.

Next, the idea is that you will drink again is always present. That you
the sponsor will slip. So be nice to people since you will drink again.
The assumption is that everyone drinks again. No exceptions. Everyone.

Be nice to newcomers; one day they may be your sponsor.

PICKLES, CUCUMBERS AND FRUIT FLIES

New People in A.A. are fodder for the fear mongering and put downs of
A.A. slogans. New people are told that they are in denial and that they
have a deadly disease. The only way to get better is by constant
attending of A.A. meetings. The slogans tell newcomers to show up and
shut up. The new person is welcomed in to the group with unconditional
love if they accept the idea that they are alcoholics. If the newcomer
does not do what they are told, then they are informed that they will
die from drinking. In short, they are doomed. What newcomers are not
told is about whether a certain sponsor is abusive or that 13-Stepping
(sex with new people) occurs regularly. The slogans tell the newcomer
that they are really `nut cases'.

These two slogans say the same thing: newcomers are to be ignored since
they are 'nut cases'.  That certainly is some welcome to a new person
to be told they are a fruitcake.  Gee, hit me with a hammer a few
times while you are at it.

Newcomers are like rum fruitcakes.  You can take out the rum, but you
still have a fruitcake.
Once you are a pickle, you can't be a cucumber.  But once you are a
pickle, you can be a newcomer.
(OH, Most Gracious Door Knob, spare me these word play slogans.)

Why is five years the deciding point for old timers versus newcomers.
Does it really takes that long to indoctrinate a person into the
12-step way? Most groups usually allow a year for a new person.

Newcomer is someone with less than five years of sobriety.

Another stupid word slogan, but you see what the set up is. Newcomers
are examples of what you were once: "a drunken sot".  Old-timers rule
the roost.  Sponsors are the people who bird-dog you so you get the
right thinking.  This slogan plays off the variation of past, future,
and present that A.A. loves to do.

You need newcomers to tell you where you came from; old -timers to tell
you where you could go, and a sponsor to tell you where you are at.

TIME IS LIKE A RIVER, EXCEPT IN A.A.

Time stops in A.A. People are urged to live one day at a time. They are
encouraged not to plan or think of the future. A.A. sense of time is
that instead of a river, it is a swimming pool.

What is interesting is how much emphasis that A.A. has on people living
in the now or today.  They seem to think that if people look back or
look forward something awful will happen.  What is strange is that the
person in doing the steps has to look to the past to make amends and
all of that.  However the past is used as whip to convince the person
that that is what they will return to in the future if they leave A.A.
AA separates people from their past.  Past defines people, which is
where they came from.  When you separate a person from the past, you
can remake the person in the 12-step image.  You entice them with the
idea of a clean slate.  Then sentence them to keep the memory green
for selected parts of their pasts.  It is a way of destroying the
person and remaking them.
AA separates people from their future.  To A.A., the future is a
threat.  Once people start to dream and plan, they realize that they
can do things and one of those things is leave.  AA steals people's
dreams.  AA is pernicious in destroying people.  They tell people if
you plan or expect, you are evil and will drink. AA robs people of
hope.  There is no hope on the endless cycle of the steps.

As long as people are in the now, they cannot grow. There are no stages
of growth.  There is nothing that the person can look back to see
where they need to go.  No mile posts, nothing.  People become
children who cannot see beyond where they are. Adults live in the past,
present, and future.  That is what mature people do; they assimilate
the whole from the parts. AA keeps people immature by forbidding them
from the parts.

One Day At A Time, And Only One Day.

In context, "one day at a time" is a good thing. You can work on the
basis of one day at a time until you can get the full routine down. It
is the beginning of taking baby steps. You start doing small things and
work up to the big things.

One day at a time can be used in a good way. It is a time management
tool for breaking a project down into manageable chunks. It stops
people from zooming into the future and panic and helps them to cope
with a seemingly impossible situation. The positive aspect of one day
at a time is to help you when you are building the Hoover Dam. You
decide what you do today and only today. Then building on what you have
done, you move to the next task. It helps you focus on the task at hand
and not panic or be overwhelmed.

AA takes this idea to the extreme and compels members to stay stuck in
one day at a time.

However in the A.A. sense, it is a thought stopper. It has nothing to
do with helping people not to panic about the future. It has nothing to
do to help people focus on today and what they need to do. It is used
to connect God with your sobriety with your time in A.A. In that sense,
the slogan is toxic. It keeps people from saying I have 40 years and I
have learned all I need to know. So now I am leaving. It keeps people
stuck in 'if I think ahead, I will drink'.

It is used to put people in their place by stressing how many days they
are sober. It is a way to diminish people's efforts at not drinking.
Instead of having people think in terms of years, they think in terms
of days. If you only think in terms of days, you do not see the future.
You cannot plan. You remain stuck.

ODAAT is more than just a thought-stopping slogan.  Where the 12-Steps
are concerned, it is also a human spirit killer!  ODAAT conjures up
indecision, insecurity, fear, deprivation, mistrust of one's own
judgment and a myriad of other emotions.  A.A. encourages its members
to have extremely low expectations of themselves.  When they adhere to
the ODAAT mantra, tomorrow doesn't really matter.  If something awful
happens, then they have given themselves the "green light" to use if
they have a "reason"(a reason which, in reality, is just an excuse to
get high)  And when they do use, they can crawl back to the open arms
of AA and receive forgiveness and absolution for what their "disease"
made them do. .

One day at a time

We don't just get somewhere, we go there one day at a time.

One day at a time, remember "the mighty oak was once a little nut that
held its ground."

Life sucks. But in A.A. life sucks one day at a time.

Inane Slogans Said Profoundly


I have no idea what these slogans mean other than 'Rome wasn't born in
a day.' But the idea of time is a thing I must earn is a strange one.
Unless of course you work in an organization that rewards people for
longevity, then it makes sense. These slogans are said at meetings with
a grave tone to give them a pseudo-profound meaning.

TIME = Things I Must Earn

It takes time.

Give time time.

One day takes time.

Old People Beware

These ones on `old' are strange but do fit into the A.A. mythos. Think
about it. According to A.A. people will drink and die. A dismal view of
people, that they are doomed no matter what they do is what A.A. has.

Do not regret growing old; it is a privilege denied many.

The person with the most sobriety at a meeting is the one who got up
earliest that morning

How does one become an `old-timer'? Don't drink and don't die.

Don't Do It

This is the crux of the A.A.'s member's relationship to time. You
cannot move forward or backward since you live in the 24 hours. The
last one is a tip off for problems of the Program. The Program is so
awful that you have to suck it up a day at a time. Actually since
people are stuck, they do not go anywhere such as leave A.A. They are
where A.A. wanted them to be.

Easy Does It.

Use the 24 hour plan.

Today I have more solutions than problems.

Live in the NOW

Live in the moment.

Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour

I have been here a few 24 hours.

I can do something for 24 hours that would appall me if had to keep it
up for a lifetime.

These slogans fit in with the time relationships. You get the feeling
that you have no time. There is no passing of time; there is only the
instantaneous moment of time. Time in A.A. does not exist. AA is only
three dimensions, not four. It is a paradox since that is how people
value themselves in the Program. Those with the most time are the ones
who are the most valued people. Other organizations value people's
experiences and institutional knowledge. A.A. frightens people who have
been members a long time into thinking that the knowledge they have
gained is worthless. These slogans also segue into the disease idea of
alcoholism.

The farther I get from my last drink, the closer I get to my next
drink.

If you can't remember your last drink, maybe you haven't had it.

Again, the A.A. Program slips in the back door. The idea of one day at
a time is central to the program. You have to live in only the now. You
have no past or any future. If you keep people off balance with the day
concept, then they are unsure about themselves and their futures. It is
a subtle means of keep people in A.A. and the `new way of the Steps'.

Live each day the best that you can.

New Day, New Way.

The assumption of these slogans is that people live in regret or fear.
The only emotions that people feel are shame, guilt, and remorse. There
is also an assumption that joy is fleeting and happiness does not last
only shame does. People are expected to feel only shame but not
contentment. A.A. teaches its members that fear is the relevant
emotion.

Today is a gift that is way it is called the present.
Don't worry about tomorrow; God is already there.
When I live in the past, I live in regret.  When I live in the future,
I live in fear.  When I stay in
the NOW, everything's always O.K.
Alcoholism: Guilt of yesterday, fear of tomorrow, shame of today.
Tomorrow's a fantasy and yesterday's gone, there is only today.
When you've got one foot in yesterday and the other in tomorrow, you
can only piss on today.
The only way to have gratitude is to live in the now, not in the past
or the future.

Passivity is Its Own Reward

These slogans are destructive to the person and to the community. They
encourage passivity and pessimism. They expect people to live dull and
predictable lives.

These slogans discourage community activism and involvement in civic
affairs. To live in and build a community, a person has to experience
discomfort to make things better. According `to accepting', that means
if I live in a gang infested neighborhood, I should accept all the
drive-by shootings that happen. The idea that people must accept bad
things is destructive to themselves and their community.

A.A. does not encourage its members to interact with the greater
community. Although A.A. promotes the ideas of the Serenity Prayer, it
does counsel about what are the things that I cannot change. A.A.
prefers that people separate themselves into their home groups.

Just accept, don't expect.

Any expectations are inversely proportional to my serenity.
Therefore our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances
as they are, ourselves as we
are, and the people about us as they are.

Living in the wreckage of the future.

Don't project.

On the surface, these slogans promote common sense approach to things.
Planning is effective to dealing with life's processes. Having a plan
is a creative response to life's ups and downs. However, the idea of
planning conflicts with the ideas of acceptance and living in the now.
How does A.A. square one with the other? They slip in the caveat that
planning is not the answer since the results are usually other than
what people expect. There is a concept in time management about
planning and dealing with the process called "If you are up to your
knees in alligators, remember your main objective is still to drain the
swamp." With that in mind, planning becomes the best way of achieving
your goals.

You can plan plans, not results.

Plan, don't project.

Prior planning prevents problems.

Plan, but don't plan the outcome.