Terminally Unique

The intent is, on one level, to get people to 'completely give themselves to this simple program', to get them to recover via the 12 Steps, but the truth remains that a significant number of people -- for whatever reason -- will never be able to do this. They will be told over and over again that they are not being honest enough, or left something out of their 4th Step, or haven't accepted Step 1 completely. Many, believing they are deficient by design, and that AA is the 'last house on the block', will go on a free-fall-to-bottom looking for that elusive 'Step 1 experience', dying long before they ever have it.

Others will have that experience, and accept Step 1 completely, but still be unable to work the program, and will resign themselves to their dismal fate. People in the rooms will remain blithely unaware of this, though, and attribute all of it to 'their disease'. So, no, DT, this is not merely an opinion, nor is it a simple analysis of a passage. It comes from first-hand observation of what actually occurs in the rooms, where I have seen blatant disregard for human suffering, and where people have actually read that passage from Chapter 5 aloud the day after a suicide or death, usually at a meeting, but sometimes at the funeral itself.