More on Doctor Dode

Three days ago I posted a link to an article by a Dr. Lance Dodes on Salon.com that my AA, NA, and non-addict friends might find interesting. Dr, Dodes has some misconceptions about AA and how most of us employ the Twelve Steps and I don't doubt his sincerity. I’m trying to find some stats on the success of Dr.’s therapy based recovery and couldn’t find any online; so, I’m looking for stats on the success of non-Twelve Step and therapy based recovery programs. Though I haven’t found any yet, the Dr. in the article I posted the other day stated AA has about a five to ten percent success rate. I can add that Dr. Dodes has a book he hawks on 7 steps of his treatment: "The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry." By Dr. Lance Dodes, M.D., and Zachary Dodes. Copywrite 2014, Beacon Press.

            I can say first that I have no beef at all with non-Twelve Step therapy based programs. It is an industry and industry functions best in a competitive atmosphere. Whatever floats your boat is my attitude, based on my experience, and that is the attitude expressed in all 12-Step literature from its very beginning: the Dr. implies otherwise because he confuses rehab institutions with recovery programs. Besides that, his chief objection seems to be that AA is a religion based program with dismal if not unscientific and questionable, results. Secondly he objects to the first three steps that demands surrender to helplessness over drugs and alcohol of the acolyte and that he/she be convinced of having an incurable disease: thus, the only remedy would be treatment in the Fellowship, conscious contact with a Higher Power and proselytizing for the organization. These points alone would suppose that the good Dr. has a cure and that the cure he proposes has garnered as good or better results than programs that employ a Twelve Step approach. I, for one, would like it to be so but I doubt it. He speaks of a cure in his treatment of a mythical Dominic.

            One objection of the Dr. is in the opening statement of Chapter Five, in the Big Book, that boasts: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” He says that this puts the blame for failure on the individual and not the disease the Dr. ironically says the person doesn’t have. Clarifying this issue further on the paragraph, but not well enough for the Dr., the Big Book excuses: “There are such unfortunates, they seem to have been born that way.”

            Personally, I wish it would read; “like alcoholism, these people are not at fault any more than a patient is responsible for the ravages of one’s cancer. But we are responsible for following treatment.” This is to me as far as it ought to go. We do not fail if we slip.

            The Dr. also objects to the Twelfth Step itself in that he believes it is a commandment to go out and spread the word. Having no grasp of the Twelve Traditions that parallel the Eleventh Tradition that states; “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need to always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.” The Dr.’s error here is an understandable misconception because so many celebrities don’t get it either and there is also much confusion about what is AA and what is a Recovery Program… some of which loosely apply Twelve Step principles.

            Lastly, I would like to point out that most of the objections to AA are usually based on a cursory understanding of what the Twelve Steps are supposed to accomplish and how recidivism of the addict isn’t necessarily a failure in the long run. No one likes to admit the importance of hitting bottom and, from the outside it is hard to understand what that means. Complete incomprehensible demoralization turns out to be the fulcrum that applies the lever of willingness that lifts the burden of our disease from our backs. Many of us are encouraged to, and have sought, healthy therapy to bolster the positive aspects of recovery. Dr, Dodes seems to believe that his medical solution excludes a spiritual one and doesn't grasp the fact that often the medical model of recovery is most compatible with 12-sStep ones.

geo 5,673

The History of Genocide

How far back can we go pointing fingers of blame on the effed-up ethnic relationships of the twenty-first century? 

  Here is a brief list of the generations of abuses in the West (I’ve skipped several but, is there room?): 1. the city states of Mesopotamia did it to each other and when the dust settled 2. the Egyptians and Persians threw in to the bloody mix everyone and anyone in their way. 

   3. The Israelites are recorded in the Old Testament as doing it to the inhabitants of Canaan and 4. everyone else did it to the Jews. 4. The Greeks did it to each other and everyone between Pakistan and the Pillars of Heracles. 5. the Persians tried to do it to the Greeks. 6. The Romans had it done to them by the Etruscans so they did it to everyone else including the Greeks, Jews, Celts, Brits, Gauls and so on and on.

   7.  From the East poured into the West as the Huns, Visigoths, Vandals and Mongol hoards of the Khans sacked what was left when Rome and Byzantine fell.

   Skipping ahead a few centuries: 8. According to the Koran the Jews were the first victims of Islam, as Mohammed and his followers put the sword to anyone in their way. 9. Eventually the Moors did it to the Iberian Peninsula. invading Spain into France on one side and almost to Vienna on the other before the Crusades did it back at Islam. 

   10. Spain did it to the  the Jews, heretics, Basque and Catalonians in an inquisition there that lasted into the last half of the Twentieth century and, as if this didn't keep them busy, wiped out or enslaved whole nations of First People here. Spain had their hands in North Africa too.

   11. The Brits did it to the Irish, the Welsh, the Scots and the First People of America, India and Africa… 12. So did the French and some Germans. 13. The Dutch did it to Indonesia and the Portuguese messed things up a bit in Brazil. 14. Nothing can be compared to what the USA did to the tribes and nations of the First Peoples… i.e., the trail of tears etc. 15. Can’t leave out 300 years of the enslavement of Africans either. That is just a few in the West but I haven’t forgotten; 15.  the French in Southeast Asia followed by the Japanese....

   16. The atrocities of the Germans against Slavs, Jews, the Romani, and dissidents of all shades are still fresh in our minds. I haven't much room on this site to mention the list of atrocities imposed on each other in Asia. There are so many... the list goes on forever and NO ONE’S hands are clean. 

So, let us stop bitching and get our act together.

I'm Back!

The extraordinary qualities of great beings who hide their nature escapes ordinary people like us, despite our best efforts in examining them. On the other hand, even ordinary charlatans are expert at deceiving others by behaving like saints.

Patrul Rinpoche

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So much of what shapes us has sadly predictable results in how we live our lives once we have passed the indoctrination period of our lives. Our rebellious nature is tamed enough for preschool and then we are roped in by the authority of “those who know”. Those Who Know teach us more than reading, writing and arithmetic in our formative adolescent years. They teach us subtle, and not so subtle, forms of submission to those who know. Those who learn best are most often those who submit best. This works for us to some degree because it prepares us to become vital cogs in the machine of social engineering. The machine of social engineering is usually done... finished by the time we are adults and our view of how to function in society is damned near set in concrete by the time we become fully formed adults.

Thus we are set up to be manipulated by authority and, if we choose to go against that, there are a plethora of charlatans waiting outside the gates to lead us by the same rings in our noses of social engineering with a new labels pasted over the old back into a delusional fold. Or, as Ken Kesey once noted when asked to join an anti-war rally in Berkeley, “You have only changed uniforms. You have leaders with bullhorns and tye-dye tees have replaced the fatigues of the National Guard… it is all the same.”

So what is the point of all this negativity? Where do we take this observation? Some escape the meat-grinder our social engineering has prepared us for via drugs and alcohol. Others go insane (Read Howl by Alan Ginsberg). Some go back to their adolescence and subject themselves to the guru of the hour, or preacher, and adopt a dogma that seems to be able to fulfill the emptiness of expectations denied and prepare us for death with promises of reincarnation or the eternal bliss of heaven. Spirituality under such motivations is little more than another manipulation: I.e., prayer and meditation is useful in that we are better equipped by our mantra for middle management of the cogs. Escape we must but our priorities demand we find our core so that our wobbling of confusion isn’t just another button to push.

            Buddha danced to a different drummer. Buddha is but an icon, however… an icon of the dance to a different drummer. No one knows what he really taught or said but the gist of it was there in the sutras; written and expounded upon by his disciples long after he was gone. Christ also did so and broke away from the conventions of authority… at least that is what the New Testament his disciples tell us. But he too is merely an icon of enlightenment. Mohammed is but an icon too: never mind what is written in the Koran and that too long after he was buried under the sands. Filtering through what is left of what they might have said or done, the most important part of each story is that these went off alone into the desert, under a tree, off to a cave, and found their core. They each became independent of the prevailing paradigm. That, my friends, is what each of us must do if we are to escape the gears of the social norms if… and only if… we are so compelled to be free. Otherwise, we might as well stay where we are because where we are is better than the nothing we find outside the gates. Outside of the gates is only for the few, the fools, and the wild, who declare, "I'm Back!"

geo 5,645

Outside of Society

There have always been warriors. That is to say that war and warriors have been a caste in cultures almost universally, even before tribes began putting walls around agricultural communities that evolved into cities and nations. Societies have classically been partitioned into four classes: Warriors, Priesthood, Administrators, and Workers. Then there are rare individuals who simply don’t fit in. There is nothing within the social confines for them behind walls and they must go outside of society either of their own will, or forced out by one or all four of the classes within the walls.

Outside of society are the mentally ill, the criminal, the artist, the poet, the shaman and so on. I might add the alcoholic and addict or just plain ole F” ups but these are luxuries in one sense and the wise ones know it. To serve no useful purpose inside the walls of social norms is a frightening thing for those who are forcibly exiled for one reason or another. This can be true for artists, poets, alcoholics and addict who want nothing more than to “fit in”… to be in the “in crowd”. I hear it all the time from those in recovery who wish “to be productive members of society.” But, to a few, criminals or artists and shaman, nothing could be more repulsive than to be accepted by the norm. We go where we don’t want to be protected by Warriors (and, in many cases, we have more in common with the Warrior than any other class), blessed by the Priesthood, categorized and taxed by the Administrators, or to be welcomed back into serfdom as a Worker.

Patty Smith sang it best; “outside of society, that’s where I wanna be!” Is it so wrong that some of us don’t want to become a cog in the machine… a part of the meat-grinder? Is it a compromise if we yield to leaching off the excesses of it? I think so… but then it is hard to escape it… only a few… only a few.

If there were a Mount Rushmore of the few who succeeded, whose four images would you carve on it? I can draw my four from four of these:

·         Buddha

·         Jesus Christ

·         Boudicca

·         Miyamoto Musashi

·         San Juan de la Cruz

·         Galileo

·         William Blake

·         Red Cloud

·         Morihei Ueshiba (O Sensei)

·         Mark Twain

·         Jack Kerouac/Alan Ginsberg/Neal Cassidy

·         Alan Watts

·         Mother Teresa

All of these and more. I have left out the great reformers of our time because they were working within the frameworks of Society. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and so on were indeed great enough to be put on a Mount Rushmore but these aren’t striving to be outside.

geo 5,626

A Bitter End for a Sweet Man

I haven't felt like posting much since my Dad passed away. It is a peculiar phenomenon that I don't quite understand. It is as though my ideals, my ideas, my perceptions really don't matter much... not as much, at least, as the abiding essence of life... no, that's not it... it is something else... something I can't put a finger on and name... or a story that goes on without a name. I wonder whether his story meant anything to him as he lay there in his hospital bed with what appeared to be not much more to be concerned about than his next breath. I grieve, of course, but I believe I might be grieving for myself as well: I.e., born to die.

   Dad was a robust and healthy man up to the last ten years of his life. He went down fast as his mind was captured by a strange and cruel dementia. A sharp, bright man with a great sense of humor was reduced to scanning for one liners in order to speak. It was a harsh way to go and he was a good man that I believe deserved the best as he exited from this life. The man earned his way and his payment was this! Damned if the Gods aren't sadistic!

   In thinking about old age... our declining years... our end... I can comfort myself with the suspicion that, by the time we go, we are ready to go. Our infirmaries prepare us for the end of it. We think, "This is awful, let's get the eff out of here!" and then we go... just like that. I suppose a good life like the one my Dad lived is reward enough... he had love in his life and compassion for us all, as well as comfort in his so called Golden Years. That ought to be enough.... Shit, what am I bitching about?

geo 5,625

Loving Kindness

It is with gratitude that I look back on my past and think of all the small gestures of kindness that got me through. The simple light of hope stayed kindled just because someone simply smiled or gave me shelter when I had no home. I have found loving kindness from high and low. I don’t have to think long and hard to remember a Christmas dinner, the books on the shelves, the kind hosts, and the house on Addison Street in Berkeley some forty plus years ago. I don’t have to strain to recall them but I do have to give some extra effort to bring up incidents whereby the opposite occurred. I can recall only a little of the pain, the heartbreak, the disappointment of rejection and grief caused by indifference, hatred or fear. Those dark clouds have passed and, when my mind is opened with strong emotions of loving acts of kindness, I am still impressed and gratitude encourages me to be kind if I want to be remembered. Let resentment slip away if I will and allow my soul to be embraced by the Heart of Compassion in which there is no fear disappointment, despair, or hatred.

geo 5,619

Old Cow Practice

Remember the example of an old cow:

She’s content to sleep in a barn.

You have to eat, sleep and shit ---

That’s unavoidable --- anything

Beyond that is none of your business.

Do what you have to do

And keep yourself to yourself.

Patrol Rinpoche

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When it gets right down to it my faith is un-faith. I get all tied up in a knot with dogma and credos when I depart from the basics. The basics to me are the simple things I must do each day that must be done. Life gets complicated when I start adding things to it. If my attention strays from its center I am useless to myself and to anybody else. Moralistic jingoism gets set aside along with patronizing self-righteousness. They are replaced with a humility that allows others the freedom of their own dignity. Do the next right thing and then shut up about it. Allow the merit of compassion to sink in before I take credit for it because compassion is its own being and knows no restrictions. I become content to be free of encumbrances as an Old Cow practicing the three basics: eating, sleeping and shitting.

geo 5,615