Quotes - The Problem

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step 3

Page 44 to 45

Page 44

These people often throw to the winds every chance for
legitimate security and a happy family life. Whenever a hu-
man being becomes a battleground for the instincts, there
can be no peace.

But that is not all of the danger. Every time a person
imposes his instincts unreasonably upon others, unhappi-
ness follows. If the pursuit of wealth tramples upon people
who happen to be in the way, then anger, jealousy, and
revenge are likely to be aroused. If sex runs riot, there is
a similar uproar. Demands made upon other people for
too much attention, protection, and love can only invite
domination or revulsion in the protectors themselves—two
emotions quite as unhealthy as the demands which evoked
them. When an individual's desire for prestige becomes un-
controllable, whether in the sewing circle or at the interna-
tional conference table, other people suffer and often re-
volt. This collision of instincts can produce anything from
a cold snub to a blazing revolution. In these ways we are set
in conflict not only with ourselves, but with other people
who have instincts, too.

Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct
run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their de-
structive drinking. We have drunk to drown feelings of
fear, frustration, and depression. We have drunk to escape
the guilt of passions, and then have drunk again to make
more passions possible. We have drunk for vainglory—
that we might the more enjoy foolish dreams of pomp and
power. This perverse soul-sickness is not pleasant to look
upon. Instincts on rampage balk at investigation. The
minute we make a serious attempt to probe them, we are

Page 45

liable to suffer severe reactions.

If temperamentally we are on the depressive side, we are
apt to be swamped with guilt and self-loathing. We wal-
low in this messy bog, often getting a misshapen and pain-
ful pleasure out of it. As we morbidly pursue this melan-
choly activity, we may sink to such a point of despair that
nothing but oblivion looks possible as a solution. Here, of
course, we have lost all perspective, and therefore all genu-
ine humility. For this is pride in reverse. This is not a moral
inventory at all; it is the very process by which the depres-
sive has so often been led to the bottle and extinction.

If, however, our natural disposition is inclined to self-
righteousness or grandiosity, our reaction will be just the
opposite. We will be offended at A.A.'s suggested inven-
tory. No doubt we shall point with pride to the good lives
we thought we led before the bottle cut us down. We shall
claim that our serious character defects, if we think we have
any at all, have been caused chiefly by excessive drinking.
This being so, we think it logically follows that sobriety—
first, last, and all the time—is the only thing we need to
work for. We believe that our one-time good characters will
be revived the moment we quit alcohol. If we were pretty
nice people all along, except for our drinking, what need is
there for a moral inventory now that we are sober?

We also clutch at another wonderful excuse for avoid-
ing an inventory. Our present anxieties and troubles, we
cry, are caused by the behavior of other people—people
who really need a moral inventory. We firmly believe that
if only they'd treat us better, we'd be all right. Therefore
we think our indignation is justified and reasonable—that