Step We Are On: Four
Page: 69
Chapter: 5 "How It Works"
Subject: Resentment Inventory, Fear, Self reliance, Trust, Sex
Good
morning. We are going through the columns of the 4th step directions. We are
looking at SEX and learning how the harms that come about from selfishness and abusing sex causes harms to others.
We are now on page 69
(NOTE: The sex
section of this book began on 68, not on 69)
Page 69
- What is the other side of the debate?
Then we have the voices who cry for sex and more sex; who bewail the institution of marriage; who think that most of the troubles of the race are traceable to sex causes.
They are talking about "free sex" proponents. We
all know that "free sex," - immoral, obsessive sexual behavior,
was not invented in America in the 60’s. Sexual deviancy in extinct, fallen civilizations, large and small, are legend. "Humans behaving badly" is centuries old.
But they were a known quantity here in the 30's too.
But they were a known quantity here in the 30's too.
- What do they think?
Non-committal, extra marital, self-centered sexual activity, typically practiced between persons who are unmarried who have lost control of their animal impulses, has been historically considered taboo in U.S. culture, as it has historically been in most successful, enduring, civilized peoples. Many folks today resort to justifying and 'embracing' self-centered obsessions they share, like sex, and 1938 is no exception.They think we do not have enough of it, or that it isn't the right kind.
- What do they see?
They see its significance everywhere.
Sigmund Freud's innovative brand of psychology was coming to the fore back in this
period of American history and people were becoming familiar with the chronic cocaine addicts theories about psychosocial development as a central element in society. American life was becoming all about sex! (What? A coke fiend who is obsessed with SEX! Who ever heard of such a combination - right?)
One side would allow
what?
One school would allow man no flavor for his fare
Fare – food, provisions
~The Winston
Simplified Dictionary – 1938
- The other side would allow what?
the other would have us all on a straight pepper diet.
- Did the co-authors want to set the "no flavor" vs "all flavor" people straight?
We want to stay out of this controversy.
What is "this" controversy? Many folks try very hard to have us believe that this section of the Big Book places all talk
about the sex lives of others off limits.
That is understandable since so many of us are embarrassed by our broken sexual styles and are secretly ashamed that we need an overhaul - (Self-centered sexual shortcoming that we do not wish others to know about) We would rather the subject never come up.
What they do is simply compare sex with food. Which is very appropriate, since both are necessary for human existence and BOTH are so often abused beyond their normal purposes. God created us to procreate, and he also gave us the ability to metabolize fuel to for it (eat) - but some of us 'use' these functions in ways where we become obsessive about them. It is always to cover-up still-suppressed resentments and anger.
That is understandable since so many of us are embarrassed by our broken sexual styles and are secretly ashamed that we need an overhaul - (Self-centered sexual shortcoming that we do not wish others to know about) We would rather the subject never come up.
But
the co-authors do no such thing.
What they do is simply compare sex with food. Which is very appropriate, since both are necessary for human existence and BOTH are so often abused beyond their normal purposes. God created us to procreate, and he also gave us the ability to metabolize fuel to for it (eat) - but some of us 'use' these functions in ways where we become obsessive about them. It is always to cover-up still-suppressed resentments and anger.
Man (is allowed) no flavor for his fare
2) The other (school of thought):
All (of us) on a straight pepper diet.
This is the controversy: How much spice
in our ‘dish’. It is comparing sex with food;
spicy sex or bland sex. It doesn’t say they will not have or talk about sex, that hey will not convey their experience on sexual matters, or that the subject of sex
is verboten for us readers. It is only an acknowledge that “no flavor” vs. “all flavor” is a controversial
subject, and that the co-authors wished to not engage in that debate in writing, in their book.
When two alcoholics
are together talking about their troubles, their shortcomings, their
defects..... and they are not talking about sex....and "how it pertains to
man’s conception of what is right and just and ethical; discriminating between
right and wrong," in other words what is “moral” in this regard, then they are leaving a lot of stuff
out of the discussion. Such conversations about character defects will be incomplete.
Half measures avail us....what?
Peace and Love,
Danny S – RLRA
Real Live Recovered Alcoholic
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