A Silence That Large

A.A. does not know how many members it has, and that is not carelessness. There are no rolls, no dues, no registry, and a standing refusal to say who belongs. What A.A. publishes is an estimate — and that estimate is the most portable thing it owns. It travels a long way from home. An outside body arguing for a policy, a funding model, a piece of legislation, reaches for the largest available number of recovered alcoholics, and there is only one such number. So it appears in a submission, and it is doing work there. It is being offered as evidence that an enormous group of people, all of whom got sober a particular way, support a particular conclusion. They were never asked. They cannot be asked. There is no mechanism by which A.A. could poll itself and no Tradition that would permit it to answer if it could (Big Book, p. 565): "The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever." No views whatever, and no way to say so — which is precisely what makes the number so useful to somebody else. A silence that large can be made to mean anything.