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"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing - to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." »» John Keats

Applied Anarchy - 12 Steps To Recovery

Posted on October 10, 2007
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I don’t read nearly as many blogs as I would like, but Francois Tremblay’s Check Your Premises is almost always one of the first. I just came across another brilliant post of his from a few days back titled A 12 Steps For Stateaholics. It essentially takes the 12 Steps made famous (or is that infamous?) by Alcoholics Anonymous and applies them to addiction to the State-

1. We admit that we are powerless over the State: that our lives have become managed by people with political power, and that we have been indoctrinated to believe this is in our best interests.

2. We come to believe that only the power of our own values and our own inner light can restore us to sanity.

3. We make the decision to retake our lives and our will, and to become free individuals once again.

4. We make a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.

5. We admit to ourselves the nature of our wrong thinking and immorality.

6. We do not expect anyone but ourselves to remove these defects of character.

7. We work on our shortcomings and strive to become freedom-oriented individuals.

8. We make a list of all persons the State has harmed, and realize the extent to which the State harms our society.

9. We demand that the current government make amends to such people.

10. We continue to maintain an inventory of the State’s shortcomings.

11. We seek to improve our conscious contact with natural law as we understand it, seeking more knowledge of it and the wisdom to carry it out.

12. Having had a personal awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to other stateaholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Like Francois, I’ve never been a fan of AA, or other 12 Step programs. Personally, I see it as just another addiction, although a healthier one. I do agree that AA has helped many people regain control of their lives, though and think that Francois may well be on to something here. Regardless of one’s political beliefs and affiliations I think we all could benefit from contemplation of these 12 Steps. Acting on them would clearly make the world a better place.