“From [resentment] stem all forms of spiritual disease” (Page 64, Big Book)
This is a problematic statement, because it not
self-evidently true. The book does not attempt to explain this, either, so we
have to fall back on some logical thinking.
Let’s see if we can find examples of spiritual disease that
do not appear to stem from resentment. Here are two. One can accept with
equanimity the facts of the world and yet be thoroughly selfish. One can be
indifferent as to the behaviour of others yet shut out God entirely. It is not
apparently the case that spiritual disease cannot arise in the absence of
resentment or that, if resentment is eliminated, all other manifestations of
human rebellion against the Divine (which is the essence of spiritual disease)
will automatically dissolve.
After all, the inventory continues after the resentments are
mastered, because there is plenty to clear up, and there will be plenty to
clear up for the rest of time, such ‘disease’ arising naturally in the course
of living with an intact ego, even in the absence of substantial resentment
adduceable to explain the fact.
We must therefore sweep from the table the idea that,
whenever we find an example of spiritual disease, it necessarily originates in
resentment.
The most likely sense intended is this: there is no form of
spiritual disease that cannot stem from resentment, but instances of spiritual
disease, whilst they might stem from resentment, might stem from all sorts of
other causes.
Indeed, resentment, the Book says, is one of the
manifestations of self, which means there are others: resentments’ siblings.
It is easy to see how resentment can lead to theft (one
steals a bun from Lidl because one resents the capitalist monsters behind the
chain), but one might thieve out of desperation or miserliness, without a jot
of resentment.
It is easy to see how resentment might lead to meanness (one
is mean to Neville’s sister to get back at Neville, whom one resents), but one
might be mean because one is sadistic or it might be a way to a selfish
personal end, without any upstream resentment.
Note that the phrase is ‘stem all forms of spiritual
disease’ not ‘stems all spiritual disease’.
Thus, the causal arrow points comprehensively in one
direction—any form of spiritual disease is a possible consequence of
resentment—but one cannot automatically infer resentment as a cause when one
discovers a case of spiritual disease.
Muscular dystrophy can cause any muscle to ache, but not
every muscle ache stems from muscular dystrophy.
There is another intriguing idea, though, which is that all
spiritual disease (and in this case we mean not just all categories of
spiritual disease but all instances of it) does indeed stem from resentment,
but one particular resentment.
That resentment is the resentment that God pulls rank over
man, that man is subordinate, that there are things reserved for God (being
upstream of everything, being the Creator) that man can have no access to. This
is the resentment that led to the fall in the Garden of Eden, to the birth of
the self. Without that one dissatisfaction at one’s subordinate condition in
relation to God, no mischief could possibly have arisen in the first place.
In a sense, the one, original resentment, which leads to the
rebellion against the omnicompetent God, is what sets up self in business, and,
once self is set up in business, it produces resentment, and all types of ill
flow from that.
Resentment is also the prerequisite for the persistence of all other character defects. Resentment claims innocence and superiority (as do its more covert forms, e.g. victimhood, blame, having ‘hurt feelings’, ‘being offended’), and that denies all other defects. They are now defended from ever being detected and rooted out.