WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT BIG BOOK LANGUAGE?
In the Fall of 2024, we will see the plain language Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) on our literature tables or smartphones. Coffee talk about change coming to the Big Book over a decade ago encouraged some of us to dream of what could be possible and what “should” be done to breathe a contemporary feel into AA culture. That had been an important discussion.
For July we offer two blog posts—here in part one we look into the plain language Alcoholics Anonymous. In part two, later in July 2024, we consider what kind of door-opener into broader literature possibilities this new Big Book compendium may present. You may have some thoughts or feelings about the issues and implications of the topics and it would be great to hear from you.
Here's what we cover in this blog and for those who wish, bonus material:
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The main course explores AA’s printing of a plain language Big Book – a rewrite to serve members or potential members who have a reading comprehension level below the book’s language.
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Bonus material: we are talking about AA organizational structure and changes in AA; we reflect on the most effective ways to bring about change. If you thought AA would never re-write the Big Book in your lifetime, you’re not alone. How do we build consensus and overcome resistance to change?
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More bonus material for those who can’t get enough. We look at the reasoning, and the urgency of changing literature. Why? Why now? We look at how and why and to what extent AA has morphed into a book-based society. It wasn’t always that way; as far as we know, Bill W never went to a Big Book AA meeting.
How big of a problem is the reading level of the book Alcoholics Anonymous?
“A study was done in the US to find out the literacy level of people. Literacy means the ability to identify or evaluate one or more pieces of information, which requires different levels of interpretation of a text.
Experts have assessed the level required to read and understand the text of the Big Book. They have determined that it corresponds to level 3 on a scale of 5. According to studies conducted in the US, 48% of the population was at a level of 3 or higher. This means that 52% of the population would not be able to sufficiently understand what is written in the Big Book.”[1]
In plain language, important details come first, we hear an active voice in simple, familiar language with few acronyms.
Plain language is about making the message more easily understood. If this book is barely more than a first 164-page re-write - if plain language was inclusive, not exclusive - this new book would include stories of women, youth, and queer culture, all available in the 2001 4th Edition, not to mention the voice of anyone beyond the American Christian culture of secularphobia[2]. We will explore more about what could have been/should have been written in our next blog (coming soon). Let’s get back to what AA has done: a compendium of easier-to-followre-writing mansplaining—a small step for man, indeed.
From the National Archives, here are some keys to plain language writing:
Plain language is clear, concise, organized, and appropriate for the intended audience.
- Write for your reader, not yourself. Use pronouns when you can.
- State your major point(s) first before going into details.
- Stick to your topic. Limit each paragraph to one idea and keep it short.
- Write in active voice. Use the passive voice only in rare cases.
- Use short sentences as much as possible.
- Use everyday words. If you must use technical terms, explain them in re-writing the first reference.
- Omit unneeded words.
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Keep the subject and verb close together.[3]
The timeline with the plain-language Big Book:
At the 2016 (66th) General Service Conference there was a discussion that ‘plain-language’ recovery literature be explored as a way to make the life-saving message of Alcoholics Anonymous more accessible.
April 2021, at the 71st General Service Conference there was a Conference Advisory Action that recommended that a draft version of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, be translated into plain and simple language and be developed in a way that is accessible and relatable to as wide of an audience as possible.
“The translation as a whole must capture the welcoming and inclusive spirit of Alcoholics Anonymous and inspire a sense of belonging and hope in the alcoholic seeking help.”
During the 2023 (73rd) Annual General Service Conference a secure online Reading Room was provided for members to review the first 6 chapters. Member feedback was provided to the writer to incorporate in the translation.
Comments from the Conference members:
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I could read and understand this without a sponsor and heard the message of hope.
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Was against it but I have evolved. Struck by how beautiful and respectful it was. This is the most loving thing we have done for the still-suffering alcoholics.
- Lots of fear in my area. … I think this tool will save lives. Please make it available in as many formats as possible as soon as possible.
Committees were formed (we AA’s love us some acronyms): RIPTAB meaning Researching Issues, Possible Tools and Access to the Book) committee I and II. RIPTAB-I established the literacy levels and language comprehension prospective members have/would need from the book. Literature outside AA was reviewed that was being used by members to simplify recovery.
Literacy concerns that meet the criteria of accessibility barriers included but were not limited to education level attained, English as a second language/Ethnicity, Brain Injuries, and Incarceration.
RIPTAB-II (2020-2021) had to balance what science and expertise deemed most impactful for the naïve reader, against membership concerns and requests and generalized oppositional fear and contempt. Members were asked to understand that no one was replacing the Big Book; we aimed to overcome barriers caused by the voice or narrative of our AA message.
A third committee, Tools to Access the Big Book (TABB), along with AA World Services put out a request for information (RIF) from vendors with experience in health, spirituality, self-help, and education. Of note, this RIF included:
“We seek a full plain language translation of an abridged Alcoholics Anonymous. The final work must be accessible to readers at a fifth-grade reading level.
The translation as a whole must capture the welcoming and inclusive spirit of AA and inspire a sense of belonging and hope in the alcoholic seeking help.”
Between conferences, a lot of committee and subcommittee work continued. By the April 2024 General Service Conference, the Literature Committee reviewed the Trustees’ Literature Committee report and recommended that the Conference approve the manuscript. Following seven hours of discussion on the motion and two hours of discussion on how to vote, the following day, 91 conference members were in favor, and 38 opposed, yielding 71% (more than the 66.7% needed) in favor.
Some compromise was needed—some AAs have a visceral feeling about the words “addict,” and “addiction.” An Advisory Action included to change what the professionals wrote: “Replace the references to ‘addiction’ and ‘addicted’ with language related to alcoholism.” AA World Services Inc. aims for a Fall of 2024 release. [4]
What’s Different?
- The first 164 pages are now 122 pages – by simplifying the language.
- More “gender-balanced” – e.g. jaywalker is female; but not gender-neutral using “they”.
- The wording of the Steps has not changed from Him/His, but in other places,gender-balanced He/Him/His “may have changed to God”.
- Only “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare” is included in the stories (more on some problematic Doctor Bob language to follow).
Plain language interpretation reduced 164 pages by 25%—a noteworthy reduction. How Bill wrote does not fit in as far as a contemporary discussion about alcohol use disorder or addiction in general. Here’s an example: it is unimaginable to expect to hear or read this abstract and flowery description of alcohol use disorder at your doctor’s office:
“But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is finitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics, these things are poison (“How It Works,” p. 66).”
National Archives Top 10 Principles for Plain Langue (mentioned above) #1 was “write for the reader; not yourself.” There may be a warm-blanket lullaby quality to Bill W’s poetry that appeals to the members of ten, or 20, or 40 years of AA indoctrination. Writing for the reader might look more to the book’s efficacy for a newcomer, not concerning ourselves with nostalgia appreciated by the indoctrinated. AA research reveals that—as written—Big Book language doesn’t land for over ½ of new and potential AA members.
AA took its inventory and in 2016 assessed the fitness of our literature. We are acting on what we learned, maybe not in aid of what I want, maybe not what you want us to change or do; but we are doing what has to be done, based on science, based on needs—newcomers' need primarily, and I think that’s great. While the following is not meant to reflect the final edit, in 2020 at pre-conference Area assemblies some new verbiage was shared with members for feedback. You’ll recognize this from the opening pages of Chapter Five, popularly read at many meetings:
(PLAIN LANGUAGE draft) “It’s rare for someone to fail if they follow this path. Those who don’t get better either can’t or won’t commit to this simple program. They truly don’t have the ability to be honest with themselves. We know such people exist. It’s not their fault. Perhaps they were born this way. As a result, they just can’t grasp the idea of living a life of total honesty. Without total honesty, their chance of recovery is low. Also, some people really do suffer from severe emotional and mental disorders, but many of them recover if they are honest with themselves and with others.”
(No more balking?!?!!?) “We tried to hide from some of these ideas. We thought we could find an easier [way]. But we could not. With all sincerity, please be brave right from the beginning. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas, but nothing in our lives improved until we let go completely.
Don’t forget: We are dealing with alcohol and it’s sneaky, confusing, and very powerful! Few of us can do this without help. But there is a higher power to help you, and you can find your higher power now. Half-hearted efforts did nothing to make our lives better. We were at a crossroads. So, we asked for protection and care from our higher power, and we gave up the idea of control.”[5]
The upcoming 5th Edition of our 1939 Big Book—will preserve the same problematic language found in the chapters “To Wives” and “We Agnostics” will remain in their dated, barrier-building way,barrier-building “at least until 2045 when we consider a 6th Edition” as my friend Bob K reminds us.
Yet the new stories in the back of the 5th Ed. reportedly represents the breadth of AA divergency in our experiences and adaptations.
Does this all sound like AA works at cross-purposes? I understand the frustration evoked in some. If more people can be accommodated, all the better. The AA approach is not to declare a winner of competing interests, but rather to meet all or as many of the interests and accommodations sought. Yes, And--this approach aims to accommodate competing rights and needs:
- Create a book that breaks through our dated language.
- Preserve the book that many still love and owe their sobriety to.
- Offer more tools (not more rules). Let each group and each member decide.
The science around recovery capital identifies three factors that inform outcome rates. They apply globally to everyone who recovers from addiction, but we can see them as a three-legged stool in AA also: Community Capital, Outside Resources, and Commitment.[6]
- The power of connection, fellowship, and meetings reflects an AA example of community capital.
- Commitment: our Preamble and Traditions and Concepts assert that individual desire for change is the only requirement for inclusion as a rights-bearing equal in AA.
- Outside Resources: this encompasses the help we all need and get beyond AA, including material not yet created by AA World Services.
The guidance of fellow members (community capital), Conference Approved resources and other recovery-oriented media (outside resources), and our desire to stop drinking (commitment) can help more people, as is the purpose of AA as-a-whole.
OH YEAH, DR BOB! An example of what our next steps towards “love and tolerance of others is our code” could be …
At the April 2024 (74th) General Service Conference Literature Item F (Plain Language Big Book) and Item G (Progress of the 5th Edition Big Book[7]), what are we to do with the language of Dr. Bob’s message? Both projects have been given the approval of substantial unanimity. Can plain language defuse bigotry and prejudice in the way Dr. Bob speaks?
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For people in long-term sobriety who either never believed in a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting anthropomorphic AA higher power, or for those who outgrew it in recovery as their beliefs changed with time, and certainly for a new person—more likely than ever to have never or rarely go to church or hold a belief in interfering gods—there is a passage from the “love and tolerance of others is our code” doctor, regardless of how sincerely felt at the time, hasn’t aged well. Systemic discrimination is the term now used to describe built-in barriers that favor one demographic and frustrate, exclude, or show hostility toward another. Here’s Dr Bob rapping at the close of his story (Alcoholics Anonymous, “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare” p. 181):
“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. If you still think you are strong enough to beat the game alone, that is your affair. But if you really and truly want to quit drinking liquor for good and all, and sincerely feel that you must have some help, we know that we have an answer for you. It never fails, if you go about it with one-half the zeal you have been in the habit of showing when you were getting another drink.
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
So, if plain language was understood as being without a worldview bias (but I don’t know if that’s what our editors care most about), they could:
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strike the first sentence “If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic … I feel sorry for you.” (hostile to freethinkers/anti-intellectual) and
- the last sentence “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (Christian/Judeo biased, excluding nonbelievers and other world religions).
No meaning would be lost by removing the biased/exclusive comments. Dr Bob’s caution about pride could remain without showing an irrational fear and/or hatred towards non-theists and people of faiths beyond the Judeo/Christian belief construct (Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, or any religious devotee whose teachings do not subscribe to a male gendered, interfering sky-daddy type of higher power). Wouldn’t it be nice if the rest of people with alcohol use disorder did not have to do mental gymnastics to overlook being discounted by a book that doesn’t include them with “God as you understand Him?” Appendices were also included in the work (Traditions, Spiritual Experience, etc.)
Today’s primacy of Alcoholics Anonymous is apparent, both in the number of meetings that read pages and chapters out loud and in the way that popular speakers and want-to-be popular speakers quote chapter and verse— “As Bill tells us…” or “Just as we learn in ‘There is a Solution’…” This works for many and it’s the only AA some members have ever known. Even Bob’s comments above, while I wouldn’t put words in a dead man’s mouth, I expect from my overall understanding of Bob’s love for every still suffering newcomer, informed by 21st-century varieties of AA experience, Bob Smith would choose kind language that didn’t demonize another person’s worldview.
AA’s message is transformative. AA is a way that can work. The message is fluid. A willingness of our fellowship to innovate is on display by at least trying to create more accessible resources so AA can work for more who come to us.
We Seek Progress Rather Than Perfection
No group has a 100% sobriety rate for newcomers. Nor do any group’s members all get along with each other, all of the time, or with neighboring groups, always. We are not perfect. We are still learning and becoming—hopefully becoming better. Our books are not perfect; our fellowship and program are imperfect 21st-century. According to some AA members, this imperfection is an exciting access to infinite possibilities. “The Impossible Dream,” written by J.K., from Islamadora in the Florida Keys, from the November 1971 AA Grapevine:
“I don't have to be perfect. All I have to do is grow at a pace natural to me—and that is all I have a right to expect of others. If I can remember these truths, then love—real love, as opposed to drunken sentimentality—is finally within reach. It is not stupid to accept myself and others complete with our imperfections. It would be stupid not to.
It means that I am free to like and enjoy what I have. I don't need to exhibit my high values by hating my rowboat for not being a yacht, my house for not being a palace, or my child for not being a prodigy. In all aspects of my actual life, there is room to grow. More importantly, my appreciation of what they are now has room to grow. Perfection would limit me; imperfection offers me the freedom of a million potentials. All the excitement and interest and wonder of adventure are mine to explore, ever-new, ever-changing, ever-becoming.”
So, throughout AA, the belief that any of our literature is perfect, without room for improvement, is not widely held. Our new plain language effort should help at least one demographic we are not reaching, the way the Big Book reads.
Our plain language offering won’t be perfect either. But it is innovation and this is a good step towards the freedom of possibilities described above in the AA Grapevine. There exists more potential and more room to grow.
Notwithstanding the argument for preserving the integrity of the message and sticking to our knitting as a means of maintaining AA effectiveness - we hear:
- “Don’t mess with what works!”
- “Don’t change a damn word; Bill Wilson’s pen was touched by the hand of God!” or,
- “This book is a slice of history; let’s preserve the text for posterity and for whoever finds it helpful now or going forward.”
On the other hand, the 20th-century middle-America bias in our age-old literature regarding theism and speaking by and to the heteronormative white male voice leaves out too many. Contemporary readers or potential AA members come from differing cultures and creeds.
- "Why can’t we write a book without gender and sexual orientation bias?”
- “The Big Book embarrasses me as a member of AA. It’s not just too old; it’s anti-intellectual and out of touch with a contemporary vernacular.”
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“The only way for me to keep my integrity and to share AA with others is to ignore the Big Book and rely on other (sometimes non-AA) literature. It’s a shame because there are some good ideas overgrown by prejudicial, bigoted language.”
The pulling in one direction and the opposite direction when it comes to decisions in AA is what I would call the yin and the yang of AA: some order, some spontaneity, a yearning to preserve things as they have always been, and another yearning to widen our gateway and innovate. Healthy to discuss with each other web surfer what our purpose, priorities, and principles mean to us; what can be altered or improved; and how we interpret, innovate, or practice AA’s Twelve Traditions[8] with humility and courage.
You’ve done great—maintained attention longer than a typical a on an important topic. We would love to hear from you now if you want to offer a comment. Or, if more is better, keep reading our bonus content: (i) Plain language on the AA service structure (how things get done) and (ii) The existential crisis that opened minds in AA.
BONUS CONTENT (i): AA’s organization and how change happens within our Conference.
In the last formal writings from Bill Wilson—his legacy—the Twelve Concepts ensure that the service structure of AA exists to do the member’s bidding. Members don’t all embrace the autonomy and voice they have in AA; many of us don’t pay attention to AA outside our local area or we hold an erroneous notion of AA as being directive of what can and will happen in matters of literature or dos and don’ts at our meetings.
In Warranty. Six in the Concept XII (Twelve) Bill lays out the way AA works:
“Much attention has been drawn to the extraordinary liberties which the A.A. Traditions accord to the individual member and [our] group … It is probable that we A.A.’s possess more and greater freedom than any fellowship in the world today... Because we set such a high value on our great liberties and cannot conceive a time when they will need to be limited, we here especially enjoin our General Service Conference to abstain completely from any acts of authoritative government which could in any wise curtail A.A.’s freedom … the Conference itself will always remain democratic in action and in spirit.”[9]
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Dee Hock (1929-2022)—not AA, as far as I know—wrote about organizational structures –like AA—antithetical to top-down command and control organizational structures.
Hock’s term “Chaordic Organizations” is a portmanteau combining both the sound and meaning of “chaos” and “order” to create his own word. More infamous portmanteaus adopted into popular vernacular include anklet, emoticon, breathalyzer, Bollywood, brunch, biopic, romcom, or sitcom.
AA is recognized as an example in One From Many: Visa and the Rise of Chaordic Organization[10]. Hock was the founder and CEO of VISA, which, while under his stewardship, bestowed autonomy and the challenge of ingenuity to its most outward parts.
Akin to Dee Hock’s organizational vision, the AA groups are the highest authority in the AA structure; our General Service Conference takes instruction from, and serves, the committees and ultimately the groups, based on our inverted triangle. Chaordic Organizations can be trillion-dollar enterprises like VISA, during Hock’s conception, formulation, and oversight, or a not-for-profit organization such as AA.
Another example of a chaordic organization could be Wikipedia, and in some ways, the Internet we surf on. Wikipedia has principles—Five Pillars.[11] One of these pillars is that there are no firm rules; Wikipedia is a community of editors, managing 60 million pages. In the same way, AA is a community of groups free of policing or coercion by the service agencies below them that share principles but do not impose procedures.
The idea that AA’s General Service Office (USA/Canada) coerces groups into conformity or frustrates member's, autonomy or efforts to make changes in AA—while an erroneously held belief by some—is not reflective of AA’s organizational structure. Any resistance to change in AA lies at the feet of members, our apathy, or our voicing of preferences. Anytime we are finger-pointing at GSO with directions on how to do AA better, we are right to do so. But there is a more effective process.
You can call or email GSO with your grievance or idea; you will be thanked, and your comments will be forwarded to the appropriate working committee. But the most effective means of change involves consensus building from the group getting behind your idea, through the service structure, and then becoming clear direction from the members to the General Service staff to implement your bright idea.
In this “most effective” way to bring about change in AA (as a whole), we need to start with consensus in our home group. Our consensus is brought by our General Service Rep to the district for discussion and a motion to move the idea forward. If our district finds substantial unanimity (2/3 in agreement), our District Committee Member is asked to bring the request/suggestion to the Area[12]. If substantial unanimity is found in the Area, our Area Delegate is charged with bringing our group conscience to the General Service Conference for consideration. In this way, the members and groups through our discussions, drive the agenda of change and stewardship of AA.
AA, our inverted service triangle with all the rights and autonomy with group members at the top, filtering down (not up) to a General Service Board of Directors and Trustees that implement the ideas from the frontlines—the groups—where sobriety is transmitted from people with alcohol use disorder talking to and helping each other.
Here’s how Dee Hock describes this chaordic organizational process:
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I believe that purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principle in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they’ll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs.
Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex intelligent behavior; complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior.[13]
In AA, helping alcoholics is the collective AA purpose; but each group agrees among themselves on what “its” message/purpose is.[14] That is how AA does “clear purpose” as described by Dee Hock. Other “purpose and principles” of inclusivity, self-support, unity, democracy, humility, collaboration, and a most effective process are described in our Traditions/ Each group self-governs; there is no enforcement or punishment for non-conformity.
More Bonus Content (ii): Why so serious Batman? The existential threat that is opening AA minds.
Consider AA’s stalled growth rate (according to the General Service Office). While a bigger AA isn’t a better AA, in the wake of population growth over twenty years, and the number of people who are identified as suffering from alcohol use disorder increasing, with a 12.5% decline in AA membership over two decades from our peak of 2.2 million, some of us find this decline to be an existential threat. Maybe these numbers have increased our willingness, within AA, to innovate…
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About these numbers: AA’s methodology of estimating members[15] is also not perfect. For instance, we can assume we were either higher or lower than the 2.2 million reported as 2002’s membership; Our 2022 numbers are likely also higher or lower than 1.97 million. However, as the same imperfect measurement is used throughout the timeline, the trend is defendable, even if the exact numbers are in question. If you live in the USA and have been sober in AA since the turn of the century, you could be surprised AA is shrinking because, in the USA, we have grown 16%. Everywhere else, we are leaking members in a dramatic double-digit exodus, so far this Millennium putting AA as a whole in the red.
The number of members leaving AA is on the minds of our General Service Conference—they collect the data, after all. If you are wondering why the time to re-think and re-write our literature is right now, this is at least one contributing factor.
As an aside, while the number of AA members has declined, there are more AA groups. We have fewer members who have split off into more meetings. Ernie Kurtz, historian and author of Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, talked to Bill White in Reflections about how our (chaordic) style of AA organization has its roots in differences going back to an AA of just two members. What makes AA unique is the founders’ awareness of their vulnerability; both Bill W and Dr. Bob knew they were just one drink away from their next drunk. Despite the differences in these two men, they saw how they relied on each other to ensure continued sobriety. Bill W was a glad-hander, and Bob S is our “keep it simple,” founder. Ernie Kurtz muses over the question of these two very different men, would they have drank together if they were in the same bar?
They complemented each other in their differences; if AA was all up to Bill W, we would have more franchises than McDonalds and if it was up to Bob, it would be one meeting in Akron, where the two men met. The complementary differences helped AA find its uniqueness akin to a chaordic organization. When AA was two meetings, we can imagine from what we read, that the culture and rituals of the New York meeting differed starkly from the Akron meeting.[16]
Of course, meetings aren’t franchises like the McDonalds top-down hierarchal model; meeting cultures are autonomous, self-sufficient gatherings. We are united in the principle of helping alcoholics in need. Our unity is not uniformity, as you find in a McDonalds menu or pricing or eating environment. Because of these combined influences of Bill and Bob, mutual respect fostered our chaordic organizational style. Although we didn’t have this portmanteau of a made-up word (chaordic) when we drafted the Traditions that describe our style, like other organizations that support innovation at the local level, we have principles that unite us and bestowed flexibility within groups to meet the personality and preferences of each group.
From one group in Akron and another in New York City in the 1930s to 120,000 groups today. AA—in numbers—is bigger than McDonalds. There are 64,541 groups in the USA and 120,455 worldwide (2022). McDonalds Restaurants are 14,300 in the USA and 36,500 worldwide. And measuring AA groups, over the same 20-year period of 2002 to 2022, we had 100,131 worldwide AA groups (51,245 in the USA) in 2002—a 20% growth to 2022.
What is working is ingenuity at the group level. From the beginning, we joke about one resentment and one coffee pot being all that’s needed to start a new group. Whatever the motivation, this innovation to better meet the needs of individuals is reflected in the diversity of AA groups, today. However, with all this autonomy bestowed upon us, what impediments have there been to our innovation? Here’s a question that begs another question: what is sacred in AA: the message or recovery or the pages and book it was written in—the message or the medium?
AA: A book about a society, or a society about a book?
AA culture today in large part, is a book-based society with primacy of literature going to our oldest writing effort, the Big Book.
There are plenty of groups that don’t read nor rely on books by AA in their meeting rituals. For instance, some of the meetings I enjoy have a preamble, 10-20 minutes of sharing from a pre-arranged member, and then around the room to offer everyone who wishes a few minutes to reflect on what’s been said or get current. Plenty of other books or magazine articles are used to spark discussion about living sober. Groups and our members are free to conduct our meeting as? we see fit.
Still, starting in the late 1980s, meetings that are routinely quoting passages from our original text or reading from it through the meeting is a familiar format to most AA members, these days. This at least insinuates the authority of the dead guy who wrote the book and primacy of his view of what is best for every alcoholic who wants our help. Quoting him offers authority-by-association to the parroting member. Chanting and “Big Book sponsors,” whose credentials were that they had the Big Book sponsors of their own, became fanatically familiar as anyone in AA today could attest.
We know that AA didn’t always sacralize a uniform recovery approach to AA recovery. The original members it is written about didn’t get sober reading the book because it hadn’t been written yet; the Twelve Step process was conceived by Bill W, based loosely on not much more than his experience and his prescriptive ideas.
Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA taught us that there are many myths within AA folklore that are contradicted by documentary evidence. The idea of the Steps being written by a committee (many AA members' experiences), while a persistent myth, is refuted by documentary records describing this “running blind era.”
In December of 1938, with all the other chapters done, what we know as “How It Works (Chapter 5)” and “Into Action (Chapter 6)” were the last to be created before going to print in April of 1939. The notion of twelve steps morphing from regularly practiced six steps—a popular coffee room fable—has no documentary evidence to support it. The co-writer folklore about Bob Smith and/or Sam Shoemaker, crafting the Twelve Steps along with Bill W, is denied by both men. Here’s what we know now from the primary documentary research of Writing the Big Book:
“So long as there was even one other chapter still to be written, Bill would elect to work on that rather than face the intimidating talks of trying to put down on paper the exact details of their program of recovery … Bill Wilson could not have been more correct when he said ‘a definite statement of concrete principles’ absolutely had to be formulated and included in the book …Other than the references scattered through ‘Bill’s Story,’ the reputed Six Steps receive no significant mention in any of the other thirty stories written for the Big Book.”[17]
While many members get and stay sober in many ways, the Twelve Steps are routinely referred to as “the” AA program of recovery. For the first two decades of the 21st century, Big Book sales surged creating an impression of the book Alcoholics Anonymous as instructional and/or the preferred means of doing AA. The book that didn’t sell one million cumulative copies while the author was still alive to go to our meetings suddenly sold one million a year for a long stretch. What changed the AA culture? This is a topic for another day—and a good one at that—but two factors that preceded a sharp rise Big Book sales and ubiquity are:
Cocaine Anonymous: Not having their own book (early 1980s), Big Book sponsorship, manic mucking of books with highlighters, and effective and memorizing quoting pages was modeled to newcomers as the “right way” to get clean and sober.
Joe & Charlie’s Big Book Comes Alive roadshow traveled, from town to town and their recordings of instructive “by the book” AA sobriety became a subculture of people who only knew this method of applying AA to be effective and because it was what they were told and what they saw.
If by-the-book AA didn’t work, it couldn’t have become popular or garner appeal of fundamentalist levels. I hope it continues and I hope it continues to work. The CA Booking-mania has all three strength-based elements in recovery capital mentioned by David Best earlier: Community Capital, Outside Resources, and Commitment.
But where it goes overboard is promulgating the ideas that:
- other approaches to 12 Step recovery are “watered down;” groups who have topic discussions or embrace contemporary language or popular evidence-based therapeutic approaches are less effective.
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Big Book AA is an account of what the founders did, as a uniform process is the only solution with a 75% success rate, and this is what everyone should conform to, ensuring “real AA” success.
How the 1939 book was written was not an issue to me as a 1970s, teenager in my early AA because in Montreal, during that pre-fundamentalism era, the book didn’t directly inform how AA was communicated. Who may have read it, I would not know—no one quoted from it, back in the day. My early AA recovery was transmitted via word-of-mouth, talking with—not at—newer members. Speaker meetings were the norm; someone shared their journey for 40-45 minutes, in their own words. The experiences, strengths, and hope of AA came through each member’s voice and vocabulary in a contemporary vernacular.
The fact that I didn’t read the Big Book for the first decade of my recovery was ordinary, back then. “Whatever works,” “One day at a time,” “Go to meetings and get active,” and “The 12 Steps are suggestions, only,” this was the zeitgeist of the day. AA recovery was wonderful; there was no “watered down” AA.
Is the relationship between Big Book-infused meetings and newcomers and others not sticking around causation or correlation? Being as membership declined followed nothing but decade-over-decade growth, the question is a good one. People are voting with their feet by leaving. Our General Service Conference has decided that emphasis on the wording of tired literature is out of sync with over half of those who walk in our doors and do not comprehend what’s being said. And for those who understand clearly, some will embrace it and some will look for something else. So, let’s see. And let’s keep taking stock and talking about it.
In our next blog, we consider how women, youth, and cultural minorities such as LGBTQIA+, non-theists, and people of color struggle with vanilla-only AA. We may also need a message of recovery that lands better with each subculture’s readers and potential members.
If you have been talking out loud as you read, have thoughts, questions, or want to call “bullshit,” the floor is open. Rebellion Dogs would love to hear from you.
[2] Secularphobia: an irrational fear, hatred or discrimination of atheists and other non-religious people.
[6] David Best discusses strength-based Recovery Capital measurement https://youtu.be/Bouuu8QTb3w?si=Hs-A8kVD2XtRJMB4
[7] Alcoholics Anonymous was printed in 1939. In 1955, the Second Edition with new Foreword and updated AA personal stories replaced the First Edition. In 1976, the Third Edition and in 2001 the Fourth Edition both offered updated, contemporary stories to be added and a new Foreword.
[10] More about Dee Hock and his books https://www.deewhock.com/
[13] Dee Hock, One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization, 2005
[14] Tradition Five: Every group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
[15] General Service Conference Final Report posts group/member estimates annually. Publicly these are posted, usually in the Summer edition of Box 4-5-9: News & Notes from GSO https://www.aa.org/box-459
[16] Reflections Part 1 Early History of Alcoholics Anonymous https://youtu.be/ghzITT_0Yuk?si=4nn6sGIj_ElBP487
[17] William Schaberg, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA, Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2019, pp 431-457