Unanonymous Alcoholics

[honeydumplin]

We take these attitudes not at all because we claim special virtue or wisdom; we do these things because hard experience has told us that we must―if AA is to survive in the distraught world of today. We also give up rights and make sacrifices because we ought to, and, better yet, because we want to. AA is a power greater than any of us; it must go on living or else uncounted thousands of our kind will surely die. This we know.

Now where does anonymity fit into this picture? What is anonymity anyhow? Why do we think it is the greatest single protection that AA can ever have? Why is it our greates symbol of personal sacrifice, the spirtual key to all our Traditions and to our whole way of life?

The following fragment of AA history will reveal, I deeply hope, the answer we all seek. Years ago a noted ball player sobered up through AA. Because his comeback was so spectacular, he got a tremendouse personal ovation in the press, and Alcoholics Anonymous got much of the credit. His full name and picture, as a member a AA, was seen by millions of fans. It did us plenty of good, temporarily, because alcoholics flocked in. We loved this. I was specially excited because it gave me ideas.

Soon I was on the road, happily handing out personal interviews and pictures. To my delight, I found I could hit the front pages, just as he could. Besides, he couldn't hold his publicity pace, but I could hold mine.

I only needed to keep traveling and talking. The local AA groups and newspapers did the rest. I was astonished when recently I looked at those old newspapers stories. For two or three years I guess I was AA's number one anonymity breaker.

So I can't really blame any AA who has grabbed the spotlight since. I set the main example myself, years ago.

At the time, this looked like the thing to do. Feeling justified, I ate it up. What a bang it gave me when I read those two-column spreads about “Bill the Broker,” full name and picture, the guy who was saving drunks by the thousands!

Then this fair sky began to be a little overcast. Murmurs were heard from AA skeptics who said, “This guy Bill is hogging the big time. Dr. Bob isn't getting his share.” Or, again, “Suppose all this publicity goes to Bill's head and he gets drunk on us?”

This stung. How could they persecute me when I was doing so much good? I told my critics that this was America and didn't they know I had the right of free speech? And wasn't this country and every other run by big-name leaders? Anonymity was maybe okay for the average AA. But co-founders ought to be exceptions. The public certainly had a right to know who we were.

Real AA power-drivers (prestige-hungry people, folks just like me) weren't long in catching on. They were going to be exceptions too. They said that anonymity before the general public was just for timid people; all the braver and bolder souls, like themselves, should stand right up before the flash bulbs and be counted. This kind of courage would soon do away with the stigma on alcoholics. The public would right away see what fine citizens recovered drunks could make. So more and more members broke their anonymity, all for the good of AA. What if a drunk photographed with the Governor? Both he and the Governor deserved the honor, didn't they? Thus we zoomed along down the dead-end road.

The next anonymity-breaking development looked even roseir. A close AA friend of mine wanted to go in for alcohol education. A department of a great university interested in alcoholism wanted her to go out and tell the general public that alcoholics were sick people, and that plenty could be done about it. My friend was a crack public speaker and writer. Could she tell the general public that she was an AA member? Well, why not? By using the name Alcoholics Anonymous she would get fine publicity for a good branch of alcohol education and for AA too. I thought it an excellent idea and therefore gave my blessing.

AA was already getting to be a famous and valuabe name. Backed by our name and her own great ability, she produced immediate results. In nothing flat her own full name and picture, plus excellent accounts of her educational project and of AA, landed in nearly every large paper in North america. The public understanding of alcoholism increased, the stigma on drunks lessend, and AA got new members. Surely ther could be nothing wrong with that?

But there was. For the sake of this short-term benefit, we were taking on a future liability of huge and menacing proportions. Presently an AA began to publish a crusading magazine devoted to the cause of Prohibition. He thought Alcoholics Anonymous ought to help make the world bone dry. He disclosed himself as an AA member and freely used the AA name to attack the evils of whiskey and those who made it and drank it. He poined out that he too was an “educator,” and that his brand of education was the “right kind.” As for putting AA into public controversy, he thought that was exactly where we should be. So he busily used AA's name to do just that. He broke his anonymity, of course, to help his cherished cause along.

This was followed by a proposal from a liquor trade association that an AA member take on a job of “education.” People were to be told that too much alcohol was bad for anyone and that certain peopl―the alcoholics―shouldn't drink at all. What could be the matter with this?

The catch was that our AA friend had to break his personal anonymity; every piece of publicity and literature was to carry his full name a a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. This of course would be bound to create the definite public impression that AA favored “education,” liquor trade style.

Though these two developments never happened to get far, their implications were nevertheless terrific. They spelled it right out for us. By hiring out to another cause, and then declaring his AA membership to the whole public, it was in the power of any AA to marry Alcoholics Anonymous to practically any enterprise or controversy at all, good or bad. The more valuable the AA name became, the greater the temptation would be.