Where the f*** did we get this idea?
Treatment. I am sure that this is a twisted version of “To thine own Self be true”.
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!”
(Hamlet, Act-1, Scene-III, 78–82)
Polonius believes that a person can be moral and good to others when he is honest and frugal. He must be loyal to his heart first, then take care of others.
This is not selfish. We must be true to our Big-S Self- God within – first, so that we can take care of others.
Put the oxygen mask over your nose and mouth first, and then over that of your child so that you don’t pass out and die and then put them at risk.
This is not selfish.
The program of A.A. is about putting other people’s needs ahead of our own, but not in a servile or scraping way, either. It assumes we are not slaves, but living, as we are in complete nihilism today – we actually think this is a selfish program. So Sad.
When I put others needs first, it is assumed that I have taken care of myself – here’s an example – I don’t lend money to another that I need to pay someone else. That is not thinking of others. Underneath that there is a desire in the moment, to get praise or a pat on the back from someone by robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is not what putting others needs ahead of our own means. You take care of your obligations to keep a roof over your head first, and then you give freely of what you have left over.
I do need to stay sober, go to meetings, do my step-work, etc first, before I help others. This is not selfish. If I don’t do this I will die of alcoholism. Then what good will I be to others?
This comes also from the slave system we are living in where employers and ultimately “government” ignore our lives and expect us to work like slaves for no loyalty. This is not how life used to be when the book was written. These days it does feel selfish to stand up for your schedule and your life, but it truly is not. We have inalienable rights which are being tromped on by “employers” who are demanding more and more of us and we are dispensable – so it feels like we are being selfish when we take the time to simply live. Not true. This is a lie of the times we are living in.
AA was created in a Free Society. Or I should say a “Free-ER society”. It has never been truly FREE here, however in the 30s you did not have surveillance and violation of the amendments, the Patriot Act, The Anti-Terrorism bill and all this bullshit which makes a government authority prevalent – which is mimicked by employers, etc and then the “citizens” start acting like slaves – half-humans who do not have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Inalienable means that these rights come from God to us – they are not bestowed upon us by government or a constitution, but by God Himself – but these days they are being tromped on – and we do have to fight to uphold these rights because our “rulers” want us to believe that we have no rights, thus making it seem selfish for us to simply exist or do the things that people have to do to LIVE FREE.
In AA, we have ONE ultimate authority – God. In society, suddenly we have other authorities – like the cops, the government, the state – etc and this starts to wear away at the fabric of our very being so that we become servile and scraping, underhanded and dishonest, to justify our needs for simple freedoms that we as humans are gifted by God – that’s why we say it’s “selfish” to simply do the things we need to take care of ourselves! NO. This is bullshit.
Anonymous Alcoholics 