Consumers Anonymous
The Twelve Steps of Consumers Anonymous
1. We admit we are powerless over consumerism—that our lives have become unmanageable.
2. We believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. (we do not assume we have already done this because we are in a church or faith community, but come to this conviction afresh, over this specific issue)
4. We will make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human beings the exact nature of our addictions.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove the hold this power has over us.
7. We humbly accept God’s grace in overcoming our shortcomings.
8. We will make a list of all persons we have harmed – such as sweatshop workers, slaves, and those marginalised by our buy-in to a system that absolves us from social responsibility by shifting responsibility onto a welfare state – and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We will attempt to make direct amends to such people wherever possible.
10. We will continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it.
11. We will seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening, we will try to carry this message to our communities, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
As well as the obvious change from the original, all the ‘I” statements have been changed to ‘we’ statements recognising that the need for a community, group, or church to move together.
Adapted by Jolyon White – confessed recovering consumer, trying to stay on the wagon.
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