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BOTTLE

                           BATESON
Bateson presented an
analysis of the precepts              
of Alcoholics Anonymous.           This is one of the first    
                                   places I actually read    
The question is why exactly        about AA and their      
is it that this doctrine           12-steps and all.  The    
seems to be successful in          importance of avoiding    
treating alcoholism                "the first drink" was a        DRUGS         
though factually it seems          big influence on me.    
to have problems.                                      
                                   
In particular it pretends          
that entities that are                The way I tend to put it:
inside the self are external          You can't always trust
to you, e.g. "The Bottle".            your self.  The rhetoric
                                      of "willpower" is dangerous.
    "The bottle is                    Maybe no one has willpower:
    stronger than                     some people are just lucky
    I am."                            enough not to need it.


           And I suppose:
           "The muse is speaking
           through me." rather
           than "Some mysterious
           mental process that
           I can't describe is
           selecting words."


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