aacultwatch's
perspective on:
This
tome is much reviled in cult circles (especially amongst the Big Book
nutters who regard it as almost heretical! (A point of interest: if
you're looking for meetings largely free of the aforementioned
'fruitcakes', and for that matter sundry other screwballs, then a
Twelve Step meeting following the format of the above text is usually
a safe bet). The text we will be using is as indicated above. And
now we come to:
“Step
Six
“Were
entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”
“THIS
is the Step that separates the men from the boys [or
women from the girls … or sheep from the goats].” So
declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.’s
greatest friends. He goes on to explain that any person capable of
enough willingness and honesty to try repeatedly Step Six on all his
faults—without any reservations whatever—has indeed come a
long way spiritually, and is therefore entitled to be called a man
who is sincerely trying to grow in the image and likeness of his own
Creator [or, alternatively, live in accordance
with those secular principles he or she has adopted].
Of
course, the often disputed question of whether God can—and
will, under certain conditions—remove defects of character will be
answered with a prompt affirmative by almost any A.A. member.
To him, this proposition will be no theory at all; it will be just
about the largest fact in his life. He will usually offer his proof
in a statement like this:
“Sure,
I was beaten, absolutely licked. My own willpower just wouldn’t
work on alcohol. Change of scene, the best efforts of family,
friends, doctors, and clergymen got no place with my alcoholism. I
simply couldn’t stop drinking, and no human being could seem to do
the job for me. But when I became willing to clean house and then
asked a Higher Power, God as I understood Him, to give me release, my
obsession to drink vanished. It was lifted right
out
of me.”
In
A.A. meetings all over the world, statements just like this are heard
daily [as are many variations]. It is
plain for everybody to see that each sober A.A. member has been
granted [or merely acquired] a release
from this very obstinate and potentially fatal obsession. So in a
very complete and literal [perhaps not – this
is clearly open to individual interpretation] way, all A.A.’s
have “become entirely ready” to have God [or
any objectified higher principle] remove the mania for alcohol
from their lives. And God has proceeded to do exactly that.
Having
been granted a perfect release from alcoholism, why then shouldn’t
we be able to achieve by the same means a perfect release from every
other difficulty or defect? This is a riddle of our existence, the
full answer to which may be only in the mind of God [or
perhaps it is amenable to thorough investigation].
Nevertheless, at least a part of the answer to it is apparent to us.
When
men and women pour so much alcohol into themselves that they destroy
their lives, they commit a most unnatural act. Defying their
instinctive desire for self-preservation, they seem bent upon
self-destruction. They work against their own deepest instinct [but
see “death drive”]. As they are humbled by
the terrific beating administered by alcohol, the grace of God can
enter them and expel their obsession [or
alternatively they experience catharsis].
Here their powerful instinct to live can cooperate fully with their
Creator’s desire to give them new life. For nature and God alike
abhor suicide [but see “death drive”
above].
But
most of our other difficulties don’t fall under such a category at
all. Every [?] normal [?]
person wants, for example, to eat, to reproduce, to be
somebody in the society of his fellows. And he wishes to be
reasonably safe and secure as he tries to attain these things.
Indeed, God made him that way [or not].
He did not design man to destroy himself by alcohol, but He did give
man instincts [again see “death drive”
above] to help him to stay alive.
It
is nowhere evident, at least in this life, that our Creator expects
us fully to eliminate our instinctual drives. So far as we know, it
is nowhere on the record that God has completely removed from any
human being all his natural drives. [true in
the sense of Divine intervention but inaccurate otherwise – see
Buddha …
and other “enlightened” men and women]
Since
most of us are born with an abundance of natural desires, it isn’t
strange that we often let these far exceed their intended purpose
[this assumes the notion of 'intelligent
design' as does most of Bill Wilson's analysis]. When they
drive us blindly, or we wilfully demand that they supply us with more
satisfactions or pleasures than are possible or due us, that is the
point at which we depart from the degree of perfection that God
wishes for us here on earth [or variance from
the psychological or conative norm]. That is the measure of our
character defects, or, if you wish, of our sins [no
… we prefer “defects”].
If
we ask, God will certainly [?] forgive
our derelictions. But in no case does He render us white as snow and
keep us that way without our cooperation. That is something we are
supposed to be willing to work toward ourselves. He asks only that we
try as best we know how to make progress in the building of
character. [clearly all this can be reframed in
purely secular (and psychological) terms without the need for any
kind of divine objectification]
So
Step Six—“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of character”—is A.A.’s way of stating the best
possible attitude one can take in order to make a beginning on this
lifetime job. This does not mean that we expect all our character
defects to be lifted out of us as the drive to drink was. A few of
them may be, but with most of them we shall have to be content with
patient improvement [or perhaps none at all].
The key words “entirely ready” underline the fact that we want to
aim at the very best we know or can learn.
How
many of us have this degree of readiness? In an absolute sense
practically nobody has it. The best we can do, with all the
honesty that we can summon, is to try to have it. Even then the best
of us will discover to our dismay that there is always a sticking
point, a point at which we say, “No, I can’t give this up yet.”
And we shall often tread on even more dangerous ground when we cry,
“This I will never give up!” Such is the power of our instincts
to overreach themselves. No matter how far we have progressed,
desires will always be found which oppose the grace of God [or
to put it another way – the struggle between the id
and the super-ego to employ one psychological model].
Some
who feel they have done well may dispute this, so let’s try to
think it through a little further. Practically everybody
wishes to be rid of his most glaring and destructive handicaps. No
one wants to be so proud that he is scorned as a braggart, nor so
greedy that he is labelled a thief. No one wants to be angry enough
to murder, lustful enough to rape, gluttonous enough to ruin his
health. No one wants to be agonized by the chronic pain of envy or to
be paralysed by sloth [but “Easy Does It”
nonetheless!]. Of course, most human beings don’t suffer
these defects at these rock-bottom levels.
We
who have escaped these extremes are apt to congratulate ourselves.
Yet can we? After all, hasn’t it been self-interest, pure and
simple, that has enabled most of us to escape? [Can't
see much wrong with acting on the basis of enlightened self-interest
– especially if the outcome remains the same!] Not much
spiritual effort is involved in avoiding excesses which will bring us
punishment anyway. But when we face up to the less violent aspects of
these very same defects, then where do we stand?
What
we must recognize now is that we exult in some of our defects. We
really love them [ooh we do... we do].
Who, for example, doesn’t like to feel just a little superior to
the next fellow, or even quite a lot superior [damn
right! Especially if it's true!! Kidding.. yeah]? Isn’t it
true that we like to let greed masquerade as ambition? To
think of liking lust seems impossible [nah
.. it's easy]. But how many men and women speak love with
their lips, and believe what they say, so that they can hide lust in
a dark corner of their minds [let's face it! If
it weren't for a bit of lust none of us would be here!]? And
even while staying within conventional bounds, many people have to
admit that their imaginary sex excursions are apt to be all dressed
up as dreams of romance [Ah! La folie
d'amour!].
Self-righteous
anger also can be very enjoyable [it's
fantastic! We highly recommend it]. In a perverse way [that's
fun as well!] we can actually take satisfaction from the fact
that many people annoy us, for it brings a comfortable feeling of
superiority. Gossip [but see here]
barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character
assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not
trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own
righteousness [it's a dirty job, we know ….
but someone's got to do it].
When
gluttony is less than ruinous, we have a milder word for that, too;
we call it “taking our comfort.” We live in a world riddled with
envy. To a greater or less degree, everybody is infected with it.
From this defect we must surely get a warped yet definite
satisfaction [Oh yeah! We want more! In fact
we want more than you!]. Else why would we consume such great
amounts of time wishing for what we have not, rather than working for
it, or angrily looking for attributes we shall never have, instead of
adjusting to the fact, and accepting it? And how often we work hard
with no better motive than to be secure and slothful later on— only
we call that “retiring.” [only another ….
years to go] Consider, too, our talents for procrastination,
which is really sloth in five syllables [we'll
settle for sloth! It's too much effort to procras... yawn....].
Nearly anyone could submit a good list of such defects as these
[we've got WAY more], and few of us
would seriously think of giving them up, at least until they cause us
excessive misery [how true! Mind you … our
capacity for misery is absolutely ENORMOUS].
Some
people, of course, may conclude that they are indeed ready to have
all such defects taken from them [who are they
kidding?]. But even these people, if they construct a list of
still milder defects, will be obliged to admit that they prefer to
hang on to some of them. Therefore, it seems plain that few of us can
quickly or easily become ready to aim at spiritual and moral
perfection; we want to settle for only as much perfection [can
you have “as much perfection”?] as will get us by in life,
according, of course, to our various and sundry ideas of what will
get us by. So the difference between “the boys and the men” [etc]
is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective
and for the perfect objective which is of God [yeah.
You've got us! We'll go for the former. Long live callow youth!].
Many
will at once ask, “How can we accept the entire implication
of Step Six? Why—that is perfection!”
This sounds like a hard question, but practically speaking, it isn’t.
Only Step One, where we made the 100 percent admission we were
powerless over alcohol, can be practised with absolute perfection.
The remaining eleven Steps state perfect ideals [is
there any other kind?]. They are goals toward which we look,
and the measuring sticks by which we estimate our progress . Seen in
this light, Step Six is still difficult, but not at all impossible.
The only urgent thing is that we make a beginning, and keep trying.
If
we would gain any real advantage in the use of this Step on problems
other than alcohol, we shall need to make a brand new venture into
open-mindedness. We shall need to raise our eyes toward perfection,
and be ready to walk in that direction. It will seldom matter how
haltingly we walk. The only question will be “Are we ready?”
Looking
again at those defects we are still unwilling to give up, we ought to
erase the hard-and-fast lines that we have drawn. Perhaps we shall be
obliged in some cases still to say, “This I cannot give up yet...,”
but we should not say to ourselves, “This I will never give
up!”
Let’s
dispose of what appears to be a hazardous open end we have left. It
is suggested that we ought to become entirely willing to aim toward
perfection. We
note that some delay, however, might be pardoned. That word, in the
mind of a rationalizing alcoholic, could certainly be given a
long-term meaning. He could say, “How very easy! Sure, I’ll head
toward perfection, but I’m certainly not going to hurry any. Maybe
I can postpone dealing with some of my problems indefinitely.” Of
course, this won’t do. Such a bluffing of oneself will have to go
the way of many another pleasant rationalization [but
you'd be in good company! See St Augustine
- "Grant
me chastity and continence, but not yet.”].
At the very least, we shall have to come to grips with some of our
worst character defects and take action toward their removal as
quickly as we can.
The
moment we say, “No, never!” our minds close against the grace of
God [or not]. Delay is dangerous, and
rebellion may be fatal. This is the exact point at which we
abandon limited objectives, and move toward God’s will for us.”
[or merely what we wish for ourselves]
(our emphases)(our
observations in red print)
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
