Not Quite Bulletproof

Back in 1974 when I was a new AA member, the Fifth Tradition was displayed on a banner in every meeting and people talked mostly about their drinking. They seemed to be saying that they solved most of their problems when they put down the bottle. As I saw it, they were telling me that the problem was alcohol, and the solution was sobriety. This struck me as a kind of “aversion therapy,” in which being reminded of the horrors of drinking would give me enough willpower to stay away from the stuff.