[jimhere]

Although this is from a non-AA source, it accurate reflects contemporary AA, which itself is a reflection of society.

"The greatest of disadvantages is that we are too prone to welcome everybody else's wrong solutions to the problems of life. There is a natural laziness that moves us to seek the easiest solutions-the ones that have commen currency among our friends. That is why an optimistic view of life is not necessarily a virtuous thing. In a time like ours, only the coarse grained have enough resistance to preserve their fair weather principles unclouded by anxiety. Such optimism may be comfortable; but is it safe? In a world where every lie has currency; is not anxiety the more real and more human reaction?

Now anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions. But questions cannot be answered unless they first be asked. And there is a far worse anxiety, a far worse insecurity, which comes from being afraid to ask the right questions-because they might turn out to have no answer. One of the moral diseases we communicate to one another in society comes from huddling together in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask. (Sounds like AA meetings)

But there are other diseases also. There is the laziness that pretends to dignify itself by the name of despair, and that teaches us to ignore both the question and the answer. And there is the despair that dresses itself up as science or philosophy and amuses itself with clever answers- none of which have anything to do with the problems of life..."
-Thomas Merton-No Man Is An Island