Well the
meeting came and went and the usual efforts were made to avoid the
most burning issue facing AA today – the cult within our midst!
The event itself got off to an uninspiring start with attendees
devoting an entirely disproportionate amount of time to discussing
procedural matters whilst studiously ignoring the blazing inferno
going on around them (Pass us the fiddle Nero. We can feel a good
tune coming on!). Eventually the matter got raised and was promptly
jumped on by one of the conference delegates who seemed to have a
marked aversion to the “C” word. The matter disappeared only
(and rather strangely) to be resurrected by that same conference
delegate a little while later. Matters deteriorated even further
when the anonymity of the minority report's author (supposed) was
broken in a rather feeble (and subsequently failed) attempt to
“personalise” the issue. This is a standard cult tactic whereby
attention to the substance of an argument is deflected by directing
it rather to the proponent's alleged suspect motives and/or
questionable character – something along the lines of: “they've
got a resentment”, “they're a dry drunk”, “they're a case of
untreated alcoholism”, “they haven't got a SPONSOR”, “they're
OFF the programme” etc – fill in the blanks! It never seems to
occur to these critics that the authorS (yes – authorS – plural!)
might have been galvanised into action rather by their revulsion for
the cult's activities both here in Great Britain and elsewhere than
by any trivial and indeed ego-driven ambitions (hence the anonymity).
Still the cat has now been well and truly dragged screeching and
wailing out of the bag and we doubt very much that it will be
returned to those confines for a very, very long time to come. The
minority report is here to stay (we can guarantee this) (for copy
click here). The report
itself will be distributed to all the region delegates and is
currently being circulated throughout both Great Britain and North
America. We've got a sneaking suspicion (don't ask us how!) that it
will make its way eventually to every corner of AA. Additionally our
readers might like to consider this selection of Grapevine articles
on the subject. (Click here to download pdf)
Happy
reading
Cheers
The Fellas
(Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
