Extreme Riots

"So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.  They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so.  Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.  We must, or it kills us!"

Yeah, so although our troubles are of our own making, basically, we still feel that we must vigorously disagree with such bullshit.  Finding a mirror and looking at my own reflection, once again.  (Did you know that the mirroring process was first developed in the islands surrounding Venice and was so protected and so valuable that anyone who tried to leave and spread the technology was put to death?  Think of THAT next time you look in the mirror in your ongoing attempts to find out who is the source of all of your problems.)

A helpful but painful possible rite of passage for alcoholics would be the breaking off, the mangling, of both index fingers.  The "pointing at other people, places, and things fingers."  The "it's not my fault - it's your fault" fingers.

An extreme example of self-will run riot.  I like the words "extreme" and "riot."  We're not being described in touchy-feely terms.  We're rioting.  I've never heard a riot described in positive terms.  A calm riot.  A friendly riot.  A group of people rioting in a pleasant and welcoming way.

Riot:  A situation in which a large group of people behave in a violent and uncontrolled way.

Whew.

Extreme:  Excessive, immoderate, inordinate, extravagant and/or exorbiant behavior which goes far beyond a normal limit.

OK, so my self-will, which is rioting, is doing so in a grotesquely excessive way.  It's not a small riot.  It's a riot that is really out of control, involving cudgels and batons and Molotov cocktails and those things where a big, steel ball with spikes coming out of it is attached to a chain and swung at people's heads.  

THAT kind of riot.