I recently made a Facebook status the other day, saying that people in Alcoholics Anonymous are usually too fundamentally broken to realize that they've turned themselves over to a broken concept and a failed ideal. As you can imagine, this was met with mixed reaction, mostly toward the negative.
While I expected this fully, what I found to be the most interesting was why the negative comments were... well... negative. For the most part, it seems that people took what I said at face value and were offended before even really thinking about it. Again, I expected this to happen, but it came from people I never would have imagined would react to something I said of this caliber in this way.
As it turns out, they have/had some reason or another to defend this organization, and that's alright by me. If the system - broken as it is - works for you, then go for it. It doesn't work for me, because I can't help but to see it for what it really is: a business designed to keep you coming back. Let me elaborate.
I am an entrepreneur. I have decided that I am going to start giving back to the community that has given me so much. I start looking around at my options, and I see that most - if not all - of them have been done to death. So, what do I do? Simple: follow the rules of business. It's worked out for me well in the past, so why wouldn't it apply here?
To start, I need to create a market. This isn't always the easiest thing in the world to do, because you can't always convince people that they really need what you have (E.G., the Shake Weight) and trying to do so can be quite expensive. I start looking around and I notice something: The town I'm in has a ton of drunks. Ah-ha! That's it!
I go through the proper channels of setting this up, talking about my crusade against alcoholism and the evils of addiction. It's great PR, plus it makes people a lot more willing to give me what I want. You know, "for the greater good" and all that. Everything gets the green light, I get some volunteers to help set up shop, and open my doors to the poor, the sad, the desperate, and the broken. Let's do some good deeds.
The first few weeks are slow, sure, as there are people coming in and out. After a while though, it takes off like a shot. Suddenly, almost overnight, you're regional instead of just local. Soon after, you're national, as the news of what you're doing takes off. Government grants start pouring in. Free money! This money has to be re-invested into the program, though, and as I read the fine print, I notice that the more people enrolled into this program I have, the more money I get.
This sets certain cogs into motion. I start remembering how to run a proper business, and my mind sticks on one thing in particular: It's always cheaper, and therefore more profitable, to continue doing business with an existing client than it is to open a new account altogether. In retail, it's called "repeat business." So, how do you get that?
Well, since we created a market that let people know that alcoholism and addiction really do exist and are terrible, terrible things, wouldn't it be just as easy to convince them that they'll always be sick? That they can't do it without you?
As it turns out, it's a lot easier than you might think. All you have to do is beat it into their head that they will never not be an addict or alcoholic ever again. Ever. And when you have a whole group of people convinced about this, it becomes easier to make the newcomers buy into it, as well. After all, we're all only human, and if we have several other humans telling us the same thing for long enough, we start to believe it ourselves. It's only a matter of time. Hanging out in the barber shop and all that.
So, now that I've explained all this, does it start to make sense why I feel the way I do? At the end of the day, AA does good work for the community and for society, but I sometimes wonder what the cost really is. It's still a business, after all. There are people who work for this organization who all need a paycheck - particularly in the administrative side of things. The money has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the government through grants. The more people that AA has enrolled in its program, the more money it gets to keep things operational.
With this in mind, it's not really in their best interest to get you sober and keep you that way. Why else would they keep telling you "you can't, you can't, YOU CAN'T!"? This isn't proper or even reasonable behavior. In any other social setting, someone constantly telling you that you can't do something is considered rude and even unpleasant to be around, and yet we still have this group saying "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"
This is the problem with any kind of organization that has a foreseeable end-goal. It's not self-perpetuating enough, and if the goal is hit, what comes next? This, my friends, is the dirty truth of organizations like AA and NORML. Yes, they are doing a lot of good, but at what price? They intentionally roadblock you in the name of helping you, but really for the sake of more money.
Am I really the only person that sees something wrong with this?
Listen, folks. I'm not saying that you should boycott this organization, or write rage-filled letters to them, or anything else like that. I want to clarify that all I'm doing is what I always do: Telling you how I see it, and why I see it that way.
I'm also here to tell anybody struggling with addiction of any kind right now that you can do it. You can overcome it. All it takes is the proper desire to do so, and the acceptance of yourself in its entirety. Once you accept yourself, the rest of what AA teaches you comes along naturally. You can't keep denying yourself. You are sick, yes, but there is a cure, and that cure is yourself! You really can do this, and if you need that help of a group of people going through the same or similar circumstances, then by all means go for it. Just don't let them convince you that you will never get better again, because that's a load of crap. There is an end to this disease.... you just have to want it.
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