Anonymity

Last Sunday the New York Times published an article ‘Challenging the Second A in AA’ (http://xrl.us/bkhnum (Link to www.nytimes.com). I have the impression that we get this kind of attack on Anonymity about once a year. However amusing it may be to find it in the Fashion and Style section, the article still bothered me. If focuses almost exclusively on anonymity as a protection for the individual alcoholic from social abuse. Now, I personally think the author is nuts for claiming that there is no longer any stigma attached to drug addiction or alcoholism, but that (like most of the article) is beside the point. First, the author never touches on anonymity as a protection for the fellowship against the potentially damaging publicity from a famous self-proclaimed member going out.
Far more importantly, it is only at the very end that the author mentions the connection between anonymity and humility, yet this connection is the central point. It is critical that when people come into AA meetings they leave as much of their reputations behind as possible. I got sober in Cambridge MA and one of the local mottos there is “when you walk into a meeting you leave your degrees at the door.” It is very important that we enter AA as equals in our illness. We are there because we are sick and flawed, not because any accomplishments or disgraces on the outside. As sick and flawed people we want to heal and grow spiritually. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions and that fact is not changed by the social status of any particular alcoholic. The point is not protection from gossip or backstabbing; the point is maintaining an important spiritual tool.