I've been stewing on the whole recovery/sobriety/AA thing since our series on recovery a few months ago, and I just published my polemic "Against Recovery." I have some issues with your arguments here... looking forward to your reactions my friend :)
“Twelve-step recovery teaches you to understand your role in interpersonal relations; to understand how you contributed to conflict in your life. It requires taking radical individual responsibility for your actions and words in the past and in the present and future.”
Yes!
It teaches us personal accountability--something sorely lacking in today’s culture.
Great essay man. I've long said there is a borderline personality disorder sense to woke politics, this idealisation or demonisation, with the inability or lack of space for holding two things at once.
You articulate this well with the alcoholism analogy.
I always say that AA has the best of both the Left and the Right: mutual aid and individual responsibility. Where one ends and the other begins is called *boundaries*. This applies not just to the newcomer stuck in victim mentality but also the person with a bit of time that is still trying to carry the alcoholic as opposed to only carrying the message.
Great article. I’ve been sober since 1989. My favorite quote in the Big Book, which has served me well both in and out of the rooms, especially once I fully grasped its meaning is “Contempt prior to investigation “
I've been stewing on the whole recovery/sobriety/AA thing since our series on recovery a few months ago, and I just published my polemic "Against Recovery." I have some issues with your arguments here... looking forward to your reactions my friend :)
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/against-recovery
“Twelve-step recovery teaches you to understand your role in interpersonal relations; to understand how you contributed to conflict in your life. It requires taking radical individual responsibility for your actions and words in the past and in the present and future.”
Yes!
It teaches us personal accountability--something sorely lacking in today’s culture.
Great essay man. I've long said there is a borderline personality disorder sense to woke politics, this idealisation or demonisation, with the inability or lack of space for holding two things at once.
You articulate this well with the alcoholism analogy.
I always say that AA has the best of both the Left and the Right: mutual aid and individual responsibility. Where one ends and the other begins is called *boundaries*. This applies not just to the newcomer stuck in victim mentality but also the person with a bit of time that is still trying to carry the alcoholic as opposed to only carrying the message.
Great article. I’ve been sober since 1989. My favorite quote in the Big Book, which has served me well both in and out of the rooms, especially once I fully grasped its meaning is “Contempt prior to investigation “