INTRODUCTION In 2010, What the Early Worm Gets expanded on the idea of treatment vs. mistreatment. As a parting shot, the book drew a line in the sand of public discourse about drinking and driving: If we as a country are really ready to say drinking and driving is a top public safety concern, then we need to mandate passive in-car alcohol detectors the way other safety passive devices (seatbelts, airbags) are mandatory safety equipment. Drinking and driving deaths are 100-percent preventable. Every one of them. The book was less about impaired driving, more about public attitude toward and providing “treatment” to those who fracture that law. It was about stigma. December 19, 2012, The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)…show more content… According to Carl Alasko, author of the riveting Beyond Blame: Freeing Yourself from the Most Toxic Form of Emotional Bullsh*t, (Tarcher Books, 2011) blame is primal, tied to the fight-or-flight instinct. Alasko traced blame to our roots as social creatures, as a way of protecting one’s status within the community. Their status, not ours. The 12-steppers have a term for this: Grandiosity. Grandiosity means that the individual has an unrealistic sense of their own importance. Those who exhibit grandiosity will find it hard to accept anything but their own truths and when things conflict with their truths they will quickly find reasons to blame other people. No matter how bad this individual messes up their life they will always have somebody else to blame for worse atrocities. Like…show more content… It's called bullshit. These are false beliefs about the potential good blame brings. Take the first reason for example. When have you ever witnessed blaming an alcoholic resulting in his quitting drinking? It could have happened. Once. The dictionary defines a stigma as "a mark of shame or discredit.” Blaming a person may make them avoid treatment for the thing over which they are being blamed. Also, social stigma about treatment being a sign weakness may prevent some from seeking alcohol treatment. If anyone knows about using blame, as alcoholics we have it in our repertoire in spades. We frequently blamed other people (the crazy spouse, the awful kids, the nutjob boss) for making us drink. It was phony, and it didn't get us anywhere. There's a valuable lesson in there for non-alcoholics, too. Chapter Four
When people rely on surface appearances and false stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised. – James A.