Originally posted by lucifershammer
Taking a fearless moral inventory does not mean you've got to hit yourself on the head with things you don't need to or that you've got to go on a serious guilt trip. That's not being fearless -- it's a disguised form of self-pity.
Now, the thrust of my post was not Mel Gibson's situation. It's the general assumption that people's comments when the ...[text shortened]... th; not to mention it's a position that cannot be easily falsified (faith, anyone?)
Taking a fearless moral inventory does not mean you've got to hit yourself on the head with things you don't need to or that you've got to go on a serious guilt trip.
Agreed, absolutely—and I was told exactly that when I did a fifth step (not AA, but that doesn’t matter). What it does require is that one be absolutely and unflinchingly honest with oneself.
...the general assumption that people's comments when they are drunk reflect their "true" selves/feelings/views
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “true” here, unless you mean real or actual. I have known people who, on the level of thinking, were convinced that any form of bigotry, mentally as well as behaviorally, was both irrational and wrong—and yet irrationally and intensely disliked certain groups of people based on their race, religion or ethnicity. It was something they struggled with. All I am saying is that sometimes, when the barriers were down, so to speak, those irrational prejudices could come flooding out verbally. Later, they were embarrassed and ashamed.
In such cases, simply saying “I didn’t really mean any of that”—while on one level true—does not address the issue within themselves.
You mention both feelings and views. Again speaking from my own experience, I have not known anyone, while under the influence, to say things that they
neither felt
nor thought, at least in that moment.
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I don’t really see it as a Catch-22 situation. I don’t see alcohol as some kind of “truth detector.” I see it as a complex psychological question. That is why my suggestions were intended in a therapeutic vein (in this case, from a 12-step perspective). I wouldn’t apply the Catch-22 to the following either, but I think you can see how one might (and, as you say, it is not falsifiable)—
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8,9)