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Thursday 26 February 2015

'Mickey Mouse' recovery versus the real thing!



Well we're quite used to being told in mainstream AA (ie. the REAL thing) how deficient our own recovery is eg. AA 'lite', 'cafeteria' style recovery, “Beano readers” blah di blah di blah. But now we've come up with our very own designation for the quick fix, instant gratification, do it by the numbers brigade: 'Mickey Mouse' recovery. After all we can play this game as well!

Question: So how can you recognise Mickey Mouse recovery (Mickey Mouse - a slang expression meaning small-time, amateurish or trivial. In the UK and Ireland, it also means poor quality or counterfeit)? (interestingly - or not depending on your point of view - Mickey Mouse's (the cartoon character) body was originally designed out of circles in order to make the character simple to animate. There's got to be a message for the cult here somewhere!)

Answer: Mickey Mouse (or MM) recovery is usually nearly instantaneous! This miracle of transformation is achieved simply by: ringing up your sponsor every day, and doing EXACTLY what he or she says (of course); reading a passage from the Big Book (but only according to the aforementioned guru's current interpretation); ringing two newcomers (whether they want to be contacted or not) whose phone numbers you've contrived to extract, all the while mindlessly chanting the cult mantra – happy, joyous and free – as well as maintaining the fiction (as loudly as possible, and at every opportunity) of never having a bad day together with variations on this theme …. This type of recovery doesn't require any kind of belief in a Higher Power other than your sponsor nor is more than a superficial grasp of the Steps indicated. In line with the cult injunction viz. your best thinking got you drunk, reflection or insight are relegated to mere self-indulgence and the aforementioned mindlessness (open-mindedness is not quite the same thing) of the cult approach is very much de rigeur.

So imagine if you will a newcomer but recently arrived in the fellowship having just escaped from their personal alcoholic hell. This individual (whose concept of deferred gratification will necessarily be pretty weak especially when it comes to alcohol) has spent a large part of their life mostly sedated whilst seeking some kind of 'easy access' nirvana. On encountering the cult he or she will be “guaranteed” (yes folks – a cast iron guarantee!) a “life beyond their wildest dreams”, that they will almost inevitably be “rocketed into a fourth dimension” of bliss, and that never again will they EVER EVER have a bad day etc etc, and all this merely by following (mechanically) a few simple SUGGESTIONS (cult speak for orders!). Some of these suggestions might bear a passing resemblance to the recovery programme but hardly any will be in accordance with the principles of either the programme or the fellowship (Steps, Traditions, Concepts). The cult version is mostly counterfeit. Having been fast-forwarded to yet another set of 12 (remember the magical number!) 'Promises' via the largely 'assembly line' style of sponsorship so favoured by the cult they will then be mystically translated into this new reality. Let's face it! Any alcoholic (or addict for that matter) when confronted with this scenario is hardly likely to turn down the possibility. On the other hand if they're actually told the truth, that there are no guarantees of anything other than the fact that if you don't pick up the first drink you can't get drunk, that the steps are the work of a life time and require something more than superficial observance, that it is extremely unlikely you'll be entering any dimensions other than the rather humdrum one we currently occupy, and that bad and good days are the normal lot of humanity, well that's entirely another matter isn't it? So the cult starts and ends with a lie. There's really no other way of putting it! Mickey Mouse recovery needless to say rarely yields any lasting satisfaction - frothy emotional appeal rarely does! And for those of us who have been through the process, and then discovered the lie? Either abandon the cult (and AA) and look for other alternatives (an increasing number are available), begin attending REAL AA meetings where members share their experience of life in all its awful (and glorious) majesty, or stay with the cult and yell their ersatz message louder and louder in the forlorn hope that this will serve to drown out those oh so nagging doubts. Life's full of tough choices. But then it's that way for everyone. So take heart! Strive on – mindfully!

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous ….. and THE REAL THING!)

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