Why had I resisted this step? Because as long as I was able to convince myself that the two systems were similar but separate, I did not have to face the enormity of the problem. I could treat alcoholics, put “Band-Aids” on addictions, and go on accepting the White Male System as just different, neither good nor bad. If I acknowledged that the White Male System and the Addictive System were one and the same, I would have to deal with that system as a whole and no longer be “nice” in my complicity with what I had called the White Male System.
