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Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

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Twelve steps in the web

By Andrew Sullivan
Posted Thursday, April 30, 1998, at 12:14 PM ET

Hi Katha,
Glad you're back. I missed my morning bouts of dyspepsia.

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I was fascinated by the story in this morning's New York Times of the Internet support-group murder confession. The combination of the web and twelve-step meetings horrifies and intrigues me. Each forum appeals, I think, because it creates a space where you're free to be completely frank and anonymous, while still actually being yourself. And, thanks to this peculiar brand of invisible visibility, we're led to believe that both are spaces free of traditional moral consequences.

So in AA, you only have a first name, just as on the web you only have a screen name. And no-one checks whether it's your real one. And in AA, you can confess to anything, and all that fundamentally matters is whether you have lapsed from your obligation to sobriety, not what the consequences to others were. And on the web, you can live out any sort of fantasy, in real time, with limited accountability. On the web, you give up all your responsibility to the invisible hand of the net (see Matt Drudge). In AA, you hand over all your problems to a non-denominational omnipotent God. Put the two together, and it's no wonder people think they can confess to child-murder and still get away with it.

But are these responsibility-free no-holds-barred forums new, in any way, I wonder? Or are they simply updates of the confessional and the shrink, the cult and the Freemasons? Is our confession-prone no-responsibility president part of the trend?

And have you read Conversations With God?

best
Andrew

the breakfast table:
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