Alcoholic who has lost everything and is locked up
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Santa fe, New Mexico
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Alcoholic who has lost everything and is locked up
Hello everyone, I was reading in the big book about self-centerdness and was a little confused on this part. It mentions that an alcoholic is like the outlaw safe cracker who feels society has wronged him (I get that), but continues to proceed with the alcoholic who has lost everything and is locked up. Can someone explain the correlation to me? Thanks.
dopeless hope fiend
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Here. Now.
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i'm not familiar with that one. could you give more context? i'm not sure i even follow what you(the big book) is saying.
now, the passage about the jaywalker in the big book i can get down with. i can definitely relate to that guy, lol.
now, the passage about the jaywalker in the big book i can get down with. i can definitely relate to that guy, lol.
A work in progress
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Jersey
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The passage is talking about self-centeredness--how we are driven by our own egos and feel that our problems are caused by other people, not by ourselves.
Here it is, in context, as it talks about how we are all "actors" who would REALLY like to "run the show" ourselves, but other people just won't cooperate with our plans:
"Our actor is self-centered--ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays. He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up. Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?"
BB Quote First Ed.
Here it is, in context, as it talks about how we are all "actors" who would REALLY like to "run the show" ourselves, but other people just won't cooperate with our plans:
"Our actor is self-centered--ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays. He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up. Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?"
BB Quote First Ed.
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: LA - Lower Alabama
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A little more context is in order:
So what I get out of that is that the retired businessman, the minister, the politician, the safecracker and the locked up alcoholic are all practicing selfishness and self-centeredness in different ways.
Our actor is self-centered, ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays. He is like the retired business man who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up. Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?
A work in progress
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 16,633
Incidentally, the "alcoholic who has lost all and and is locked up" refers to one who is "locked up" in a sanitarium. Bill and many of the others in the first 100 were committed, at various times, for their alcoholism.
I have a feeling that it was the "locked up" part that may have thrown you. They aren't talking about being in jail (like the safecracker) (lol, when is the last time a "safecracker" was in jail, I wonder?
).
I have a feeling that it was the "locked up" part that may have thrown you. They aren't talking about being in jail (like the safecracker) (lol, when is the last time a "safecracker" was in jail, I wonder?
).
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