Every Group Argument

Tradition Four was not handed down to the groups; it was written up from them, out of years of their own arguments. Bill W. remembered the mid-1940s (A.A. Comes of Age): "It seemed as if every contestant in every group argument wrote us during this confused and exciting period." Headquarters answered without giving orders. Bill said they had to coin sentences that went into half the letters they wrote: "Of course you are at perfect liberty to handle this matter any way you please. But the majority experience in A.A. does seem to suggest" and then the experience followed. Liberty first; experience second, as a suggestion. "The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous came directly out of this vast correspondence." And they were never meant as law: "A code of traditions could not, of course, ever become rule or law. But it might act as a guide for our Trustees, Headquarters people, and especially for A.A. groups with growing pains." The Long Form (Big Book, p. 563) sets each group's own conscience over its own affairs because that is how the groups had been living all along. Today the letter a struggling meeting gets is more often a policy from its host, with no liberty in it. Test it tonight: ask where your group goes for advice, and whether it is free to say no.