What were the conditions that led to
the Twelve Traditions?
Answer
After the Jack Alexander article was
published in 1941 it brought down a deluge
on our little New York office of thousands
upon thousands of inquiries from frantic
alcoholics, their wives, their employers and
at that moment we passed out of our infancy
and embarked upon our next phase- the phase
of adolescence.
Well, adolescence by definition is a
troubled time of young life and we were no
exception as groups began to take shape all
over the land and these groups immediately
had trouble. We made the very sad discovery
that just because you sobered up a drunk you
haven't made a saint out of him by a long
shot. We found that we could be bitterly
resentful and we discovered that we had a
much better booze cure than we thought
possible. A lot of us found that we could
gripe like thunder and still stay sober. We
found that we were in all sorts of petty
struggles for leadership and prestige. A lot
of us were very suspicious of the Book
enterprise in the hands of that fellow
Wilson who has a truck backed up to Mr.
Rockefeller who has all the dough. And we
began to have all sorts of troubles.
Money had entered the picture - it had to.
We had to hire halls that didn't come for
nothing, the book cost something, we had
dinners once in a while. Yes, money came
into it.
Then we found little by little that the
groups had to have chores done. Who was
going to be the Chairman, would we hand pick
him or elect him or what? You know what
those troubles were and they became so
fearsome that we went through another period
of flying blind. The first period of flying
blind you remember had to do with whether
the individual could be restored into one
piece, whether the forces of destruction in
him could be contained and subdued. Now, we
were beginning to wonder in the early part
of our adolescence, whether the destructive
forces in our groups would rend us apart and
destroy the society. Ah, those were fearsome
days.
Our little New York office began to be
deluged with mail from these groups, growing
up at distances and not in contact with our
old centers and they were having these
troubles: There were people coming out of
the insane asylums. Lord, what would these
lunatics do to us? There were prisoners,
would we be sandbagged? There were queer
people. There were people, believe it or not
whose morals were bad and the respectable
alcoholics of that time shook their heads
and said, "surely these immoral people are
going to render us asunder." Little Red
Riding Hood and the bad wolves began to
abound. Ah yes, could our society last?
It kept growing, more groups, more members.
Sometimes the groups divided because the
leaders were mad at each other and sometimes
they divided because they were just too big.
But by a process of fission and sub-division
this movement grew and grew and grew. Ten
years later it had spread into thirty
countries.
Out of that vast welter of experience in our
adolescence it began to be evident that we
were going to take very different attitudes
towards many things than our fellow
Americans. We were deeply convinced for
example, that the survival of the whole was
far more important than the survival of any
individual or group of individuals. This was
a thing far bigger than any one of us. We
began to suspect that once a mass of
alcoholics were adhering even halfway to the
Twelve Steps, that God could speak in their
Group conscience and up out of that Group
conscience could come a wisdom greater than
any inspired leadership.
In the early days we all had membership
rules. Where have they gone now? We're not
afraid anymore. We open our arms wide, we
say we don't care who you are, what your
difficulties are. You just need say, "I'm an
alcoholic and I'm interested." You declare
yourself in. Our membership idea is put
exactly in reverse.
Years ago we thought this society should go
into research and education, to do
everything for drunks all the time. We know
better now. We have one sole object in this
society, we shoemakers are going to stick to
our last and we will carry that message to
other alcoholics and leave these other
matters to the more competent. We will do
one thing supremely well rather than many
things badly.
And so our Tradition grew. Our Tradition is
not American tradition. Take our public
relations policy. Why, in America everything
runs on big names, advertising people. We
are a country devoted to heroism, it is a
beloved tradition and yet this movement in
the wisdom of it's Group's soul, knew that
this was not for us. So our public relations
policy is anonymity at the public level. No
advertising of people, principles before
personalities. Anonymity has a deep
spiritual significance - the greatest
protection this movement has.
As our society has grown up it has developed
its way of life. It's a way of relating
ourselves together, it's a way of relating
ourselves to these troublesome questions of
property, money and prestige and authority
and the world at large. The A.A. Tradition
developed not because I dictated it but
because you people, your experience formed
it and I merely set it on paper and tried
beginning four years ago (1946) to reflect
it back to you. Such were our years of
adolescence, and before we leave them I must
say that a powerful impetus was given the
Traditions by the Gentleman who introduced
me. (Earl T.)
One day he came down to Bedford Hills after
the long form of the Traditions were written
out at some length, because in the office we
were forever having to answer questions
about Group troubles, so the original
Traditions were longer and covered more
possibilities of trouble. Earl looked at me
rather quizzically and he said "Bill, don't
you get it through your thick head that
these drunks do not like to read. They will
listen for a while but they will not read
anything. Now, you want to capsule these
Traditions as simply as are the Twelve Steps
to Recovery."
So he and I started the capsulizing process,
which lasted a day or two and that put the
Traditions into their present form. Well, by
this time we had a lot of experience on
these principles, which we began to think
might bind us together in unity for so long
as God might need us. And at Cleveland
(1950), seven thousand of us did declare
"Yes, these are the traditional principles
upon which we are willing to stand, upon
which we can safely commit ourselves to the
future, and so we emerged from adolescence.
Again, last year we took destiny by the
hand. (Transcribed from tape. Chicago, IL,
February 1951).
