"We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it."
Bill W. (A.A.'s Third Promise)
This is a towering promise that is grounded in nothing but nonsensical cult indoctrination that borders on sociopathy. The promise invites suffering alcoholics and addicts to a fairytale land that never materializes. In fact, this particular "promise" would have them conveniently set aside the harm they visited upon people, animals, and the environment as if they never happened. Or, conversely, if they acknowledge the existence of these past errors, they may be led to believe in the insanity that would tell them that they were led to commit these negative acts for some greater purpose. Maybe God in his mysterious ways wanted the father to get drunk and back over his six year old daughter -- for the greater good. Perhaps this sacrifice was the sea change that got the guy sober and thus allowed him to spread the gospel of AA to others.
I read about a survey where the participants were shown a picture of three horizontal lines. One line encompassed the entire page. Another fell just short of the first. And yet another fell even shorter than the second. In the experiment the participants were actually told to pick a line that was clearly not the longest. Then, the second group of unknowing participants were first told of the en masse conclusion drawn from group one. In a terrifying conclusion the study revealed that despite the obvious collective error committed by the first group, an alarming number of participants chose the shorter line. (Remember please these people were told to pick the longest line." Afterward their results were exposed and they participants questioned about the obvious errors; about the etiology of their retarded responses.
The response was ubiquitous: the fear of being different.
