Tradition 1 - "Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity."
"The unity of AA is the most cherished quality our Society has. Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it. We stay whole, or AA dies. Without unity, the heart of AA would cease to beat; our world arteries would no longer carry the life-giving grace of God; His gift to us would be spent aimlessly...
"Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, 'that in AA the individual doesn't count for much?'...
"We may certainly answer this question with a loud 'No!' We believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No AA can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled...
"The AA member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principals. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies. At first he goes along because he must, but later he discovers a way of life he really wants to live. Moreover he discovers he cannot keep the priceless gift unless he gives it away. Neither he nor anybody else can survive unless he carries the AA message. The moment this 12th Step work forms a group, another discovery is made - that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group. Realization dawns that he is but a small part of a great whole; that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship. He learns that the clamor of desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. It become plain that the group must survive or the individual will not...
"So at the outset, how best to live and work together as groups became the prime question. In the world about us we saw personalities destroying whole peoples. The struggle for wealth, power and prestige was tearing humanity apart as never before. If strong people were stalemated in the search for peace and harmony, what was to become of our erratic band...? As we had once struggled and prayed for individual recovey, jost so earnestly did we commence to quest for the principles through which AA itself might survive. On anvils of experience, the structure of our Society was hammered out...
"Countless times, in as many cities and hamlets, we reenacted the story of Eddie Rickenbacker and his courageous company when their plane crashed in the Pacific. Like us, they had suddenly found themselves saved from death, but still floating upon a perilous sea. How well they saw that their common welfare came first. None might become selfish of water or bread. Each needed to consider the others, and in abiding faith they knew they must find their real strength. And this they did find, in measure to transcend all the defects of their frail craft, every test of uncertainty, pain, fear, and despair, and even the death of one.
"Thus has it been with AA. By faith and by works we have been able to build upon the lessons of an incredible experience. They live today in the Twelve Traditions of AA, which - God willing - shall sustain us in the unity for so long as He may need us."
From the AA "12 Step and 12 Tradition book":
Tradition 1 - "Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity."
"The unity of AA is the most cherished quality our Society has. Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it. We stay whole, or AA dies. Without unity, the heart of AA would cease to beat; our world arteries would no longer carry the life-giving grace of God; His gift to us would be spent aimlessly...
"Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, 'that in AA the individual doesn't count for much?'...
"We may certainly answer this question with a loud 'No!' We believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No AA can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled...
"The AA member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principals. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies. At first he goes along because he must, but later he discovers a way of life he really wants to live. Moreover he discovers he cannot keep the priceless gift unless he gives it away. Neither he nor anybody else can survive unless he carries the AA message. The moment this 12th Step work forms a group, another discovery is made - that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group. Realization dawns that he is but a small part of a great whole; that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship. He learns that the clamor of desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. It become plain that the group must survive or the individual will not...
"So at the outset, how best to live and work together as groups became the prime question. In the world about us we saw personalities destroying whole peoples. The struggle for wealth, power and prestige was tearing humanity apart as never before. If strong people were stalemated in the search for peace and harmony, what was to become of our erratic band...? As we had once struggled and prayed for individual recovey, jost so earnestly did we commence to quest for the principles through which AA itself might survive. On anvils of experience, the structure of our Society was hammered out...
"Countless times, in as many cities and hamlets, we reenacted the story of Eddie Rickenbacker and his courageous company when their plane crashed in the Pacific. Like us, they had suddenly found themselves saved from death, but still floating upon a perilous sea. How well they saw that their common welfare came first. None might become selfish of water or bread. Each needed to consider the others, and in abiding faith they knew they must find their real strength. And this they did find, in measure to transcend all the defects of their frail craft, every test of uncertainty, pain, fear, and despair, and even the death of one.
"Thus has it been with AA. By faith and by works we have been able to build upon the lessons of an incredible experience. They live today in the Twelve Traditions of AA, which - God willing - shall sustain us in the unity for so long as He may need us."