Not-God (74 page)

The clearest and most easily available presentation of East Ridge may be found in a pamphlet distributed by it, available from East Ridge, Hankins, NY 12741. The most recent copy (“Ninth edition, August 1978”) is titled: “East Ridge — a laboratory for living the Survivors Program — the Way out when all other ways have failed.”

17
    pp. 5 and 6 of the pamphlet cited in the preceding note.

18
    Lewis Yablonsky,
The Tunnel Back: Synanon
(New York: Macmillan, 1965), pp. 52, 48. 55, 88. The passage quoted from p. 55, reproduced here in quotation marks, are the words of Dederick.

19
    Interview with Thomas W., 13 October 1978.

20
    John Burns (pseud.)
et at., The Answer to Addiction
(New York: Harper & Row, 1975), p. 213. Also especially revealing of The Survivors Program’s criticism of A. A. are two issues of its magazine,
24
, vol. 6, no. 1 (July 1976), completely devoted to “Gresham’s Law and Alcoholics Anonymous,” and vol. 6, no. 3 (Sept. 1976), featuring “The Uses and Abuses of Anonymity,” pp. 4-11, a more restrained criticism but one that again distorts history in its selective use of sources.

21
    Two leaders of the Church of The Way, Thomas P. and Thomas W., insist that the quotation of Wilson incorporated in the previous citation was oral rather than written, and I accept without reservation the accuracy of that memory. My argument here is not that there was intentional and meretricious distortion of the specific Wilson letters that I shall cite, but that there has been unconscious forgetfulness both of the historical context that gave rise to these words whether spoken or written and of the other things that Wilson was surely saying at the same time even if not in the same conversation. Both Thomas P. and Thomas W. were in close enough contact with Wilson at the time that it seems just to refer to this lapse as “unconscious forgetfulness” rather than accidental ignorance.

22
    Wilson to Howard C, 15 November 1960 (emphasis added).

23
    
AA
, pp. 62; for “This is a selfish program” as a common saying in A.A.,
cf
. the letter quoted in the second paragraph hence and cited in note #25.

24
    For the analysis of the instincts in
12&12, cf
. pp. 125-126 in
Chapter Five
, above.

25
    Wilson to Ollie and Ruth J., 10 February 1958; the longer quotation is from
ABSI
, p. 81 — the letter itself is from 1966.

26
    Wilson to Patricia N., 7 January 1963; Harry J. (Saginaw, MI) to Dr. Karen Horney, copy sent to Wilson and in A.A. archives, undated, but internally datable to July or August 1953;
AA
, p. 60.

27
    
AA
, p. 58; Wilson to Les V., 25 May 1961.

28
    Wilson to Grafton G., 22 May 1963; to McGowan H., 13 December 1965 (emphasis added).

29
    Wilson to Candy?, 7 June 1967; to Patricia N., 7 January 1963 (emphasis Wilson’s).

30
    Wilson to Barbara F., ?? 1960.

31
    Wilson to Jim K., 24 October 1956 (emphasis Wilson’s).

32
    Wilson to Tom C., 19 September 1962.

33
    Wilson to Fred L., ?? 1957.

34
    The generalization proposed in the first two paragraphs of this Conclusion is so comprehensive, embracing as it does the whole history of American religious thought in the nineteenth century, that to attempt to support it by specific citation would be ridiculous. I welcome and invite discussion of it with scholars whose specialty is this era of American thought. To encourage such, the following two citations are offered as having stimulated my thought here:

Sidney E. Mead,
The Lively Experiment
(New York: Harper & Row, 1963), “When ‘Wise Men Hoped’: The National Period,” especially pp. 92ff: what was reversed by the “constellation of [six] images” here noted and explored?

Whitney R. Cross,
The Burned-Over District
(New York: Harper Torchbook, 1965), especially “Book IV: Genesis of Ultraism”: what preceded these “New Measures,” “New Men,” and “New Ideas”?

APPENDIX B

1
     Some details from Nell Wing, interview of 21 April 1987.

2
     Bob P.,
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, pp. 6-7.

3
     L.H., “How It Seemed to One Biased Alcoholic Observer,”
AAGV
, October 1970, pp. 16-23.

4
     Many of the details in the paragraph from conversations with Nell Wing, most directly on 21 April 1987.

5
     John W. Stevens, “Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous Dies,”
New York Times
, 26 January 1971.

6
     Bob H.,
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, pp. 12-13;
cf
. also the G.S.O. report by Eleanor N. of the Public Information Committee: “The P.I.C. [Public Information Committee] handled all media coverage in connection with Bill’s death. Some time ago an obituary for Bill was distributed to the wire services, radio and TV networks. An accompanying letter signed by both Bill and Lois, gave permission for the disclosing of his full name at the time of his death. This obituary was updated periodically,” 1971
Final Report
, p. 22; a bit more detail is available in
Box 4-5-9
16:2 (Memorial Issue, January 1971), 2. Nell Wing confirmed, conversation of 21 April 1987, that a primary concern in preparing and distributing the obituary had been to prevent distortion.

7
     “To Honor Bill’s Memory,”
Box 4-5-9
16:2 (Memorial Issue, January 1971), 1: The fund was “to be administered by the General Service Board of A.A. for some special A.A. purpose. Only contributions from A.A. members can be accepted, of course, because of the A.A. Tradition of self-support.”

8
     There is a scrapbook of press clippings from around the nation and the world in the A.A. archives;
cf
. also “One Worldwide Day of Memorial Meetings for Bill,”
AAGV
(April 1971), p. 44.

9
     Associated Press wire service story of 15 February 1971.

10
    Waneta N., “Conference,”
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 21.

11
    Although published for the membership and therefore not confined to A.A.’s archives, copies of the
Final Report
of each year’s General Service Conference are preserved in the archives and like other archival material are generally open to scholarly investigators as well as to members of the fellowship. As the
Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, p. 37, reaffirmed: “There are no secrets in A.A.” — at least so long as the tradition of anonymity is respected.

12
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
33:2 (April/May 1987), 2.

13
    
Cf
. Beth K., “Planning for Conference,”
Final Report of the 1970 General Service Conference
, p. 27.

14
    “NCA To Recognize Other Drugs,”
The Alcoholism Report
, 3 March 1987, p. 7.

15
    
Cf. The A.A. Service Manual Combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service
, by Bill W. (New York: A.A.W.S., “1985-1986 edition”), with notation of the original copyright of the
Manual
in 1969 and of the
Concepts
in 1962.

16
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1960 General Service Conference
, p. 8.

17
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 33.

18
    Smith, who had substituted for Wilson at the Miami convention a scant month before, died on July 31, 1970;
cf. Box 4-5-9
15:5 (October/November 1970), 1.

19
    Bayard P., “As the Public Sees A.A.,”
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 12.

20
    John L. Norris, M.D., “Highlights of Past Conferences,”
Final Report of the 1977 General Service Conference
, p. 6.

21
    
Cf
. above, pp. 118-119.

22
    Hal M., “Alcoholic Counseling Program,”
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 10, reporting on “the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as amended December 31, 1969 [and in 1970] funded in the amount of $9,000,000” with OEO budget requests totaling $13 million for this program in 1972.

23
    For precedents,
cf
. above, pp. 117 ff.; but references to the “treatment industry” become appropriate — and common — only in the late seventies.

24
    John R., “No Monopoly on Recovery,”
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 10.

25
    “The spirituality of not having all the answers”: I am grateful for this phrase to Bob D. of Rochester, New York, conversation of 14 May 1987.

26
    This concern had also been raised the previous year;
cf. Final Report of the 1970 General Service Conference
, p. 31.

27
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 9.

28
    The final observation is based on a comparison of A.A. meeting lists from the 1960s and 1970s with Narcotics Anonymous meeting lists available for 1985 and after.

29
    The pamphlet “A.A. For The Woman,” which first appeared in 1957, replaced 1953’s “The Alcoholic Wife.” It underwent substantial revision in 1968. A clear statement of the issues appeared in the January 1963
A.A. Exchange Bulletin
8:1, under the headline, “Attention A.A. Gals!” Six barriers to “female attendance” were listed:

(1) Feeling of non-acceptance in predominantly male groups with their participation in meetings discouraged.

(2) Difficulty in getting women newcomers to attend regular meetings of predominantly male groups.

(3) Reluctance on the part of wives of A.A. members to have women A.A. members attend closed groups which their husbands attend.

(4) Difficulty of getting new women contacts from well-known families to attend group meetings where such attendance may become known to the community.

(5) Isolation of lone women members in areas where A.A. attendance is predominantly male.

(6) Difficulty of making Twelfth-Step calls on women when there are so few women members in an area.

Impressionistic evidence, supported by A.A.’s triennial surveys, indicates that each of these barriers became less a reality as the proportion of women in any group moved over one in four and approached one in three.

1987 Advisory Action #10 signaled the continuing need and continuing effort on this topic, recommending that “The title of the pamphlet ‘A Clergyman Asks’ be changed to ‘The Clergy Asks’ when it comes up for reprint.”

30
    These generalizations are based on my notes and memory of conversations with diverse G.S.O. staff during my 1976-1978 research. According to the Dick P. interview tape, the Big Book had been translated into Spanish in 1963, by a Cleveland alcoholic of Mexican origin who had come into A.A. as a result of the Rollie Hemsley publicity in 1940,
cf
. above, pp. 86-87.

A.A.’s pamphlet designed to meet claims of exceptional status, first conceived in 1975 under the title “So You Think You’re Different?” and finally published as “Do You Think You’re Different?” in 1977, derived from this context and also from awareness of such groups as gay-lesbian, agnostic, and native American alcoholics;
cf. Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, p. 43. The 1987 General Service Conference also advised efforts at new outreach to “Native North American” alcoholics, especially by
The A.A. Grapevine
.

31
    
Cf
. Advisory Action of the 1966 General Service Conference, reported in
Summary of Advisory Actions, 1951-1978
, p. 33, recommending that “The idea of a cartoon format for A.A. literature be further explored and developed for the purpose of reaching alcoholics who are unable to read well, or who just don’t read.”

32
    The suggested parallel between the 1940s and, the 1970s in A.A. history was first urged by Nell Wing, to whom I am grateful for her spirited discussion of it.

33
    On the “five C’s,”
cf
. above, p. 49, and, for a more extended treatment from within Oxford Group assumptions but applied explicitly to alcoholics, Richmond Walker,
For Drunks Only
(Hazelden, 1986 reprint of the original 1945 edition), pp. 45—46.

34
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1972 General Service Conference
, p. 14.

35
    
Final Report of the 1973 General Service Conference
, p. 34;
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 38.

36
    
Final Report of the 1973 General Service Conference
, p. 6.

37
    
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 5.

38
    
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 36.

39
    
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 6.

40
    
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, p. 1.

41
    
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, p. 13.

42
    “GSO Is No Censor,”
AAGV
, November 1971, p. 44

43
    
Final Report of the 1983 General Service Conference
, p. 6.