Question
1:
“Would
the Fellowship share experience and make recommendations on how to
make AA more visible to the general public, particularly by
increasing awareness and understanding of how the AA programme
works?"
Extracts
“In
response to ........’s post, page 2 (Tue Feb 14) requesting
suggestions of practical measures, I have the following to suggest,
in addition to my three suggestions on page 2, Committee 1, Question
2. These are also relevant to this question.
Suggestion
4
It can be
seen that concerns reflected in some of the topics/questions for
conference Great Britain this year have been raised in the AA
Grapevine for the past 10 years. Globalisation of communication has
in my view, enabled power drives of a magnitude never seen before in
AA history, which are negatively altering the nature of the
fellowship and AA public relations. This will need an equal magnitude
of effort to rectify. Global communication has perhaps crystallised
the meaning of Tradition One that each individual is “but a small
part of a great whole.” An intergroup in Great Britain cannot now
be seen simply as a local situation, but it is part of AA world
affairs. With this change in the way the world communicates, I think
AA members need to be more aware of what is going on in AA beyond
their locality with World affairs. The AA Grapevine “I Say”
forums are accessible free, to all, without having to subscribe to
the AA Grapevine magazine:
“In
short, the AA Grapevine is rapidly becoming “the collective voice
of Alcoholics Anonymous.” (Bill W. Extract from “What Is Our AA
Grapevine?” The Language of the Heart p387, AA Grapevine December
1946)
“As AA
grows in breadth and depth, so should the Grapevine, for this is the
largest mirror we have of up-to-date AA thought, feeling, and
activity.” (Bill W. Extract from “The Grapevine and You and Me”
The Language of the Heart p 392. AA Grapevine June 1957.)
AA
Grapevine “I Say” forum: Traditions, page 4:
Mon,
2011-09-12 22:45
“#1
Killer in AA
The out
side sponsorship system sponsoring inside of A.A. helping them out.”
and
“Suggestion
5
Suggest
encouraging a greater awareness of the Washingtonian movement. This
could be done via intergroup and region workshops and in general
sharing at meetings. Some of AA Tradition was based on the experience
of the collapse of the Washingtonian movement. Alcoholics today are
no different in their basic personality traits and instinctive drives
than they were in the time of the Washingtonians. It would only take
one AA generation not to pass on knowledge of the history of AA
Traditions and Concepts to the next generation, a period of perhaps
30-50 years, for AA to then diversify and repeat Washingtonian
disintegration. Information on the Washingtonian movement can be
found in the following AA publications:
Tradition
Ten (The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
Pass it On
pp 325n 354, 366-7n
The
Language of The Heart pp 4-5, 7, 11, 43
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes
of Age pp 77, 124-125
“…Those
who read the July Grapevine were startled, then sobered, by the
account which it carried of the Washingtonian movement. It was hard
for us to believe that 100 years ago the newspapers of this country
were carrying enthusiastic accounts about 100,000 alcoholics who were
helping each other stay sober; that today the influence of this good
work has so completely disappeared that few of us had ever heard of
it.
Let's cast
our eyes over that Grapevine piece about the Washingtonians and
excerpt a few sentences: "Mass meeting in 1841, at City Hall
Park, New York City, attracted 4,000 listeners. Speakers stood on
upturned rum kegs." "Triumphal parades in Boston. Historic
Faneuil Hall jammed." (Overdone self-advertising--exhibitionism?
Anyhow, it sounds very alcoholic, doesn't it!) "Politicians
looked hungrily at the swelling membership. . . helped wreck local
groups through their efforts to line up votes." (Looks like
personal ambition again, also unnecessary group participation in
controversial issues; the hot political issue was then abolition of
slavery.) "The Washingtonians were confident. . . they scorned
old methods." (Too cocksure, maybe. Couldn't learn from others
and became competitive, instead of cooperative, with other
organizations in their field.)
Like A.A.,
the Washingtonians originally had but one object: "Was concerned
only with the reclamation of drunkards and held that it was none of
its affair if others used alcohol who seemed little harmed by it."
But later on came this development: "There was division among
the older local organizations --some wanted wines and beers --some
clamored for legislation to outlaw alcohol --in its zeal for new
members many intemperate drinkers, not necessarily alcoholic, were
pledged." (The original strong and simple group purpose was thus
dissipated in fruitless controversy and divergent aims.)
And again,
"Some (of the Washingtonian local groups) dipped into their
treasuries to finance their own publications. There was no overall
editorial policy. Editors of local papers got into squabbles with
editors of temperance papers." (Apparently the difficulty was
not necessarily the fact they had local publications. It was more due
to the refusal of the Washingtonians to stick to their original
purpose and so refrain from fighting anybody; also to the obvious
fact that they had no national public relations policy or tradition
which all members were willing to follow.)
We are
sure that if the original Washingtonians could return to this planet
they would be glad to see us learning from their mistakes. They would
not regard our observations as aimless criticism. Had we lived in
their day we might have made the same errors. Perhaps we are
beginning to make some of them now.
So we need
to constantly scrutinize ourselves carefully, in order to make
everlastingly certain that we always shall be strong enough and
single purposed enough from within, to relate ourselves rightly to
the world without. Now then, does A.A. have a public relations
policy? Is it good enough? Are its main principles clear? Can it meet
changing conditions over the years to come?.."
“…If
there is no authority how can they have any public relations policy
at all? That's the very defect which ruined the Washingtonian
alcoholics a hundred years ago. They mushroomed to 100,000 members,
then collapsed. No effective policy or authority. Quarreled among
themselves, so finally got a black eye with the public. Aren't these
A.A.s just the same kind of drunks, the same kind of anarchists? How
can they expect to succeed where the Washingtonians failed? Good
questions, these. Have we the answers?....”
It appears
that trends of diversity seen in the Washingtonian movement are
beginning to become present in AA. The publication and use of non
standard literature and the undertaking of public relations via the
internet by individuals and groups, at national and international
levels, without an effective policy or authority, is beginning to
make AA public relations become unsound. If AA unity is to continue,
then a sound national and international public relations policy with
authority needs to be maintained and respected at the level of the
internet by individuals and groups. Although the internet is new,
Bill W. did write of the potential of “this limitless world forum”
to benefit AA or to shatter it through the “ego demands of our own
people.”
"A
vast communications net now covers the earth, even to its remotest
reaches. Granting all its huge public benefits, this limitless world
forum is nevertheless a hunting ground for all those who would seek
money, acclaim and power at the expense of society in general. Here
the forces of good and evil are locked in struggle. All that is
shoddy and destructive contests all that is best.
Therefore
nothing can matter more to the future welfare of AA than the manner
in which we use this colossus of communication. Used unselfishly and
well, the results can surpass our present imagination. Should we
handle this great instrument badly, we shall be shattered by the ego
demands of our own people--often with the best of intention on their
part.” (Bill W. The Language of the Heart pp 319-320)
Note: The
questions and subsequent discussion can still be viewed by going to:
For the
next batch of conference questions we will be including a section on
the aacultwatch forum specifically devoted to these but with
considerably fewer constraints on members' contributions, and with
considerably more licence to cite sources directly in support of
their arguments (currently not possible on the AA website). Moreover
members will be able to to exchange private messages via our forum (a
facility which is currently denied on the AA website). Anyone may
join in the discussion.
Cheers
The Fellas
(Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
