-=> Quoting Tim Dill to Joan Rea <=-
 TD> It says somedamnwhere in the book.. and yet I've seen my share 
 TD> of "problems" being ignored. I've heard "Can I take him/her to
 TD> a meeting if they are still drinking?" As if the sight of
 TD> a drunk in a meeting will shatter the image of that said meeting.
    I used to go to some meetings where if someone showed up in a suit
    or driving a nice car, they woulda got the same horrified
    reaction.  We was reverse snobs.
 TD> Here in "Yuppie" "Spin-Dry" "Just-out-of-rehab" "Just-out-of-detox"
 TD> meetings where if one of these so called alkies saw the likes
 TD> of a still drinking street drunk they would collectively GAG!
    You be going to some funky-ass meetings man.  Why you do that?
 TD> Some attraction, eh?
    Yeah.  Makes me wonder why you go there.
 
 JR> It takes the last 1/4 for the ritual prayers
 JR> and that doesn't leave time for much sharing.  I have tried to stand
 JR> beside many women, most, if they are desperate enough, start women's
 JR> groups.  The rest go out and die because there is no life in AA.  It
 JR> is a paternalistic mind control cult in the making.
 TD> Close, it is a NON thinking Paternalistic Rigid "My way or the
 TD> highway" inborn sense of self importance rolled into the "Accept this
 TD> program or die" kind of choice...
    Well, my first thought is that both of youse guys must be going to
    the wrong meetings.  But then I got to thinking about it, and I
    realize another perspective.
    Both of you must be going to those places in order to be at least
    a solitary instance of alternative recovery.  You are there to
    make sure that the ones who aren't strong enough to recover in
    that particular kind of atmosphere have an avenue of information
    about the alternatives.
    That's a way cool thing to be doing.  I used to go to this one
    real hard core AA meeting, they would get up and escort people out
    of the meeting if they didn't identify as an alcoholic.  No
    "anda"s allowed.
    I used to go out back and talk to the addicts who got ejected and
    let them know about N.A.  It was a cool thing.  I got the
    newcomers with the overly rigid identification process steered in
    the right direction.
    Personally, I've never understood how some newcomers could be so
    rigid as to deliberatly work towards not fitting in.  I tend to
    think that they musta been kinda high bottom or something.
 TD> Cult? Far more dangerous than a cult...
    Timmy man, I think you been watching too many B movies.
 TD> It's a cult that works.
    The ones on the inside call it a fellowship.  The ones on the
    outside call it a cult.
 
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