Who doesn't like to sit down with a hot cup of tea or coffee at a meeting? Even if it's not the warmth of the drink, the shared experiences, story and background warms the heart.
It's easy to forget the rest of the world for a moment, an hour. Letting go of the malice, kept at distance by the wall the meeting creates. It's easy to indulge in the comfort and coziness, perhaps turning a blind eye to a thing or two.
Sometimes, that blind eye can grow into a blind angle, once things are overlooked frequently. Especially if it's something socially acceptable, like buying something in a store, getting hold of a few corporate stocks or casual child-neglect.
"This text says that" may highlight a value or two. Yet beneath the surface, when verses are read, what cultural agenda gets promoted? Members who don't match the norm may be pushed aside, or sparks of neuron fire as they remember things in their childhood. So why not shove it back in the face of those that'd preach?
Seems like a great idea to push an outside interest even more powerful. That'd teach 'em. No one says no, and no enforcement with guns can be called. Some might criticize it a bit and say it's drugs, but their refusal can just be negated with a one-sided "it's an outside issue". Seems a safe way to do a bit of harm, it might even seem like service; covertly there in broad daylight.
There's more than one dealer out there, who would love to push their products in a room full of those weakened to coercion. Looks like that one already made it its territory. Why not just partake in normalizing the kind of thing using the rooms, doesn't everyone seem to do so anyway?
A few members might lose a bit of money, or fail to care for their health .. but never mind, after all they deserve it. All * are like that, and "mental" can just be put before anyway. The way they make money ain't free either now is it? Even if it ain't talked about, usually it involves a life or two using, which seems excused as long as one or two gets clean. People seem blind to what tax-money costs anyway, or the recovery-costs to living in lack.
To put it plainly. Lots of people depend heavily on structures for their careers, renown and prestige, that would lose credibility, if their making of individuals suddenly get regarded as untrustable. There's a heavy demand for the narrative to be that drugs aren't drugs. Some cultural contexts got interests that span the globe, or the wealthier parts thereof anyway. Even if there's more than one producer of something addictive, there's a powerhouse that gains ground, ease, dominance and reduced resistance on their malice, when individuals promote their stuff, indirectly selling their drugs.
Passively convincing other members, retaining that narrative, seems an easy way to get a bit of standing, support and secure a position, doesn't it? It's done frequently anyway, passively sold as a way of getting by. And those who do so often seems to have gotten a life together; money, house, social acknowledgement, peers, backing by institutions and they may even dress well - they 'own it'. It's just misusing the concept of being sick a bit. Never mind that oppression is more like being beaten, tortured and constantly poisoned. Imagine a toxic workplace, explaining someone as just being "sick". While no doubt, it is part of addiction, which becomes less and less trust-able to view as the disease it is - a vile occurrence.
And so the story goes for many. I too was attempted lured into that. I was coerced with potential losses, how hard it would be if I didn't, and I did lose out, it got pretty grim too. But something kept me from falling into that trap of getting emotionally invested in pushing that cultures products within the rooms, misusing recovery. I didn't end up surrounded with those I would've drawn into passive complicity, and didn't fall prey to indulging in the spoils passively used to buy lives into it. I was able to express dangers with clarity, in ways that others in despair communicate by approximation, and thus unlike them I avoided triggering attributions of paranoia.
Instead, I grew less dependent, and began listening to my senses. It makes it painful to be in those contexts that demand indefinitely more, nevermind the spiritual loss. Makes it painful, when shares twist about things. Always finding some excuse to. Driving in the denial that fractures the inner between naturally sensed reality and indoctrinated perception of reality. A business taking inventory of its stock, would seldom fail to neglect investments it holds.
It can be solved with another pill. Obey those who claim some title, never mind their lack of recovery - drug it away. Make the meeting less attractive to newcomers that see through the lies - it'll be fine. It'll be excused, no-one will mind, and if they do ... No-one says that, but that's the vibe. Oft it is neglected that getting out of that stuff is harder than quitting the street-drugs. Failing at approaching it tactically, leaves one stuffed with more of it, and playing along with the labels.. "It's good for some people".
Of course we're talking that which causes rationalizing on all street-drugs. The negative labeling, the misuse of diagnostics; claims written by a bunch of humans based on consensus-belief. Even AI is programmed to use language that passively promotes the context, degrading its user-base, shaping how these prompt AI.
Ever heard that the best lie is closest to the truth? "This proves that, and such proves so, therefore! And if you don't agree that's proof in itself, the holy book says so". After-all, lying is a disease, and drugging it away is proven to solve it: It stops; they die, commit suicide, disappear, start dealing themselves etc. - so never mind why the desired effect is seen. "Don't expose vulnerable people to that or something could happen", so don't tell a vulnerable addict on the street that they can get clean, and maybe that drug-crib ain't helping on things?
Did you ever inventory on being part of hindering members going through the blaze of withdrawal? Of participation in drugging people away, instead of taking responsibility as one in the collective for whom the pain was too inconvenient? It is only one kind of oppression. Some kinds misuse religious ethos, racial traits - so it doesn't discriminate.
Seems fair? Whether or not you think that, it is an extra poisonous form of oppression. It misuses medical ethos, scientific ethos and frequently gets spiced with religious ethos. Least of all, increasingly the name of the 12-step programmes passively is used to claim how it is not drugs, not oppression, not cannibalizing on kin, not exploitation and definitely completely something the majority should agree with.
After all, it is based in "evidence", "proof" and other collective consensus, so since they all say it and are part of it, it is no one persons fault. Tho what they act tributary to as individuals, sure does seem their responsibility, as the meetings sustain and thus too develop complicity, as does every beneficiary. Great way to create pressure so great, that it can't be refused, ain't it, no chance of backlash.
Only the research is based on peer-reviewing, in holding the power of something to rely on. That approach to validating and ensuring data-integrity, builds on accepting certain things as being the case without question or proof. Might as well say that because God can be turned to, there are no costs to keeping a life clean, and the capacity for members to be present at a meeting will never disappear. And it's a misuse of peer-reviewing. The 'habit' consumes the power people give to that culture. Oft it neglect that very few can actually repeat the experiments. And to do so, an individual usually must be processed, stuffed with poison and agree to extents with the consensus; shaped or rejected prior to reaching a point of contesting what is claimed as the case. The data cannot be falsified easily, and often twists on the data are added. It's similar to imposing claims of what God wants you to do, because this and that says so.
And so it can feel like there's now more than one requirement for membership: To get complicit, or accept having a high risk of having an extremely hard time. Wonder why people die on the streets.
Even so it can be alluring; those indulging often draw others to them with materialistic gains. While there may be nothing wrong with materialism per se, others get lured into misleading the newcomer, finding the promise of safety. Members get denied that they could heal, and live without using drugs. Family-systems hungering for depth-awareness of how things came to be, get bought with cheap explanations. Fixes that conveniently deny the painful responsibility, that the oppression shifted overly unto them away from others to begin with. People continue on and on, hindered ending habits, relations, stays and the like, till that need finds pathway through ends to lives and not always their own.
The more that get complicit, the more their networks develop complicity. They sense the wrongs done, craving to negate threats before it turns into losses. The way out narrows, as the corridor of opportunity to get a bit less emotionally invested fades bit by bit.
Seems like the safe "side" to be on, doesn't it? But are there really sides? Networks and the individuals depend on recovery. And participating in that, is a certain way to participate in creating small oppression-bubbles in the rooms. While that's a tendency getting worse, if you don't have a part in neglecting the common welfare somehow in some way, I'd suggest taking an inventory. That kind of complicity invites self-seeking covert behaviors. It turns the statement that "any addict can recover" into a lie, imposing more than simply the requirement to risk complicity to be a member.
It's part of creating a lot of consumption, driving a mainstream of the membership to be increasingly part of relying on products procured at low cost, by externalizing costs. What about the potential members in regions or contexts that are heavily exploited? Think their friends or family are keen that they go hang out with contexts, getting fed 'literature' out of power-contexts part of killing off their kin, their peers, their potential friends, for prices to be reduced a tad further, to compensate for the ever-increasing pressure all the fixing consumes? Be it by the pollution of denial, rationalizing, justifying or the like.
That becomes the recovery sold as the great fix, occupying the space for "other" solutions, never-mind what provides that. Surrounds lose faith in the programme, and that higher powering, when providing value to a context and that gets exploited senselessly, that reflects a minus in return to the value-provider. Higher power ain't gonna stay very powerful for long, continuing to empower that malice. And while I ain't that, I hate bringing this topic up, 'cause it comes with a variety of risks, the least of which is the initial denial-reaction that somehow finds a pathway, inflicting demotivating pain.
I.e. faith in the programme fades, people shy away from members, and often those who may suffer at it the most. Some try to possess access to the increasingly scarce capacity to recover their loved ones, as though was it a final point to reach, consuming the programme to continue things as they were (at time holds real value).
And so the disease infects the rooms, driving externalized costs, making the recovery available only at a higher and higher cost. And once complicit and in that, dependent on that instead of having grown independent, invested that surplus handed from beyond, fellowship and the broader context, life begins to get hard. Think predators targeting that are the monsters?
The message, little by little, gets watered down to a promise that "you can get high on abstaining for a bit". It's not that it's a scam, it just gets drained. And by experience, let me tell you that walking the other direction is hard, not pleasant and the sheer resistance is immense. Often those that begin using that, get complicit in it .. well it's fun and great for a bit, and until it stops being fun they keep at how great it is. Wasn't fun for me to get exposed to, and thinking about the setbacks it caused is not pleasant; ends that didn't meet, ends that took other forms. Lotta cruelty. It's unbearable, and frequently I was/am attempted broken, excusing damaging me with the expectation that I'd turn away from God and start misusing programme, and it sure as hell ain't those that'd rely on me down-the-line doing that. Simultaneously I'm craved to do stuff like writing this, 'cause it's convenient, especially when others then can sit back and not do anything.
That said, I can look the newcomer in the eyes. I can tell them that there's a way to get, and stay clean, and I can mean it. I can say its a great thing too, on the days I can see through the cloud induced, by the constant denial-inducing. On the days I got some hope that it'll not just have been convenient to others who then didn't need self-inconvenience. I can look at lives, aware that I'm making their futures more likely and easier, instead of taking from the bit by bit. I can lower the costs to staying clean, to recovering and put the surplus unlocked back into recovery.
I can also acknowledge that there are those who reside within these contexts, that apply the ease they gain well. It does seem to require a position, a bit of humility and avoiding the labeling without getting invested in the oppression. I hope this'll make it easier for you that walk, you that choose recovery within that, you that struggle within that mess. If you're in the latter, it requires a bit of wisdom to get out of it, and facing a lot of disappointments. None handed the package to me, so I cant pass it on to you, but many contributed to my way out, after I was sunk into it. While I hope I wasn't somehow part of you being sunk into it (I doubt it), may this contribute to your recovery.
Note: While it's a bit of a risk, some that are emotionally invested as described, may find freedom by reading this and taking an inventory. They may need be in a degree of despair, pressured or unable to past some pain. Lest the pleasant illusion of there being no problem, or that it's contained in a way improving things, drive them to rationalize on the above, draining the potential healing impact. Other than that, it's good for healing meetings, negating decay of the meeting. Note that decay can hide under a high, and recovery seem undesirable.
