Our Twelve Traditions
Page 563 in the Alcoholics Anonymous book gives us the Long Form. The short form is on page 562.
The traditions are not part of our new design for living or part of the recovery program—they inform us about UNITY for groups and A.A. as a whole (our society). “Sponsors” and A.A. guides need to teach what the traditions mean for unity of the fellowship.
12&12, pg 15: “A.A.’s Twelve Traditions apply to the life of the Fellowship itself. They outline the means by which A.A. maintains its unity and relates itself to the world about it; the way it lives and grows.”
SOME HISTORY: The following quote excerpts were compiled by Jim Burwell from various talks and articles by Bill Wilson. Here is the link to “Barefoot’s World.”
QUESTION: What were the conditions that led to the Twelve Traditions? (EXCERPTS– Transcribed from tape. Chicago, IL, February 1951)
After the Jack Alexander article was published in 1941 it brought down a deluge on our little New York office of thousands upon thousands of inquiries from frantic alcoholics, their wives, their employers and at that moment we passed out of our infancy and embarked upon our next phase—the phase of adolescence.
… We made the very sad discovery that just because you sobered up a drunk you haven’t made a saint out of him by a long shot. We found that we could be bitterly resentful and we discovered that we had a much better booze cure than we thought possible. A lot of us found that we could gripe like thunder and still stay sober. We found that we were in all sorts of petty struggles for leadership and prestige. A lot of us were very suspicious of the Book enterprise in the hands of that fellow Wilson who has a truck backed up to Mr. Rockefeller who has all the dough. And we began to have all sorts of troubles.
Money had entered the picture—it had to. We had to hire halls that didn’t come for nothing, the book cost something, we had dinners once in a while. Yes, money came into it. Then we found little by little that the groups had to have chores done. Who was going to be the Chairman, would we hand pick him or elect him or what? You know what those troubles were and they became so fearsome that we went through another period of flying blind. … we were beginning to wonder in the early part of our adolescence, whether the destructive forces in our groups would rend us apart and destroy the society.
Our little New York office began to be deluged with mail from these groups, growing up at distances and not in contact with our old centers and they were having these troubles… by a process of fission and sub-division this movement grew and grew and grew. Ten years later, it had spread into thirty countries…
In the early days we all had membership rules. Where have they gone now? We’re not afraid anymore. We open our arms wide, we say we don’t care who you are, what your difficulties are. You just need say, “I’m an alcoholic and I’m interested.” You declare yourself in. Our membership idea is put exactly in reverse.
Years ago we thought this society should go into research and education, to do everything for drunks all the time. We know better now. We have one sole object in this society, we shoemakers are going to stick to our last and we will carry that message to other alcoholics and leave these other matters to the more competent. We will do one thing supremely well rather than many things badly.
… our public relations policy is anonymity at the public level. No advertising of people, principles before personalities. Anonymity has a deep spiritual significance—the greatest protection this movement has.
…The A.A. Tradition developed not because I dictated it but because you people, your experience formed it and I merely set it on paper and tried beginning four years ago (1946) to reflect it back to you. Such were our years of adolescence, and before we leave them I must say that a powerful impetus was given the Traditions by the Gentleman who introduced me. (Earl T.)
One day he came down to Bedford Hills after the long form of the Traditions were written out at some length, because in the office we were forever having to answer questions about Group troubles, so the original Traditions were longer and covered more possibilities of trouble. Earl looked at me rather quizzically and he said “Bill, don’t you get it through your thick head that these drunks do not like to read. They will listen for a while but they will not read anything. Now, you want to capsule these Traditions as simply as are the Twelve Steps to Recovery.”
So he and I started the capsulizing process, which lasted a day or two and that put the Traditions into their present (short) form. Well, by this time we had a lot of experience on these principles, which we began to think might bind us together in unity for so long as God might need us. And at Cleveland (1950), seven thousand of us did declare “Yes, these are the traditional principles upon which we are willing to stand, upon which we can safely commit ourselves to the future, and so we emerged from adolescence. Again, last year we took destiny by the hand.
Have the Traditions been widely accepted? (Transcribed from tape, Fort Worth, TX, 1954)
When they were first written in early 1946 as tentative guides to help us hang together and function, nobody paid any attention except a few “againers” who wrote me and asked what the hell they were about.
Nobody paid the slightest attention but little by little as these Traditions got around we had our clubhouse squabbles, our little rifts, this difficulty and that and it was found that the Traditions indeed did reflect experience and were guiding principles. So they took hold a little more and a little more so that today the average A.A. coming in the door learns at once what they’re about, about what kind of an outfit he has really landed in and by what principles his group and A.A. as a whole are governed.
