Tim
08-04-2005, 02:45 PM
In the early days of AA during the mid-1930s, Bill W, one of the co-founders of AA, began an aggressive campaign to promote alcoholism recovery in New York. His avowed aim, with every good intention on his part, was to actively round up alcoholics who needed sobriety and to teach them the no-brainer solution to alcoholism found in the AA program. It failed miserably.
Out of this disastrous beginning, however, came AA's statement of purpose that it was to be a program of "attraction rather than promotion." The results of this change of approach have been nothing less than than amazing. Millions have since recovered from alcoholism thru the AA progam.
It's good for me to remember the lessons of history:
* Attraction not promotion
* Recovery is not for those who need it, but for those who want it
* "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it" (Santayana)
Out of this disastrous beginning, however, came AA's statement of purpose that it was to be a program of "attraction rather than promotion." The results of this change of approach have been nothing less than than amazing. Millions have since recovered from alcoholism thru the AA progam.
It's good for me to remember the lessons of history:
* Attraction not promotion
* Recovery is not for those who need it, but for those who want it
* "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it" (Santayana)