Unity With Whom?

The short form's second half gets borrowed by programs that want the drunk to depend on them, and the Long Form takes it back. The short form (Big Book, p. 562): "personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity." Notice the letters: A.A. Not the program's, not the counsellor's, not the aftercare plan's. In a facility the line gets rewritten out loud: stay connected to us, stay in our groups, come back to our alumni meeting, because your recovery depends on it. The client hears Tradition One. What he is being sold is loyalty to a business. The Long Form says why unity matters, and the reason is the drunk, not a head count (Big Book, p. 563): "A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die." Bill W. said it again in A.A.'s pamphlet on the Traditions (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 6): "Else, save few exceptions, we and our brother alcoholics throughout the world will surely resume the hopeless journey to oblivion." Oblivion means being blotted out, gone. A.A.'s unity keeps free rooms alive for that brother. A program's unity keeps its own seats filled. Test it tonight: when someone in your room says unity, ask unity with whom, and who gets paid when you keep it.