He Is Almost Never Only Carrying Himself

The part that gets forgotten is that a break is rarely one person's. A member who goes public goes public with a room behind him — the sponsor who gets named, the friend whose story is told because it makes the point better, the man whose relapse is useful as an illustration. The Big Book set the domestic version down in 1939 (p. 125), long before anybody imagined a camera in a pocket: "Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve. We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories." Unless we are sure he would approve. That is already a high bar across a kitchen table. At the level of press, radio and films it is effectively unreachable, because the people whose stories travel along are not in the room when the decision is made, and they will find out the same way strangers do. A member can only ever consent for himself. The difficulty is that he is almost never only carrying himself.