Was Bill Wilson Brat?

Perhaps there is a common thread in Charli XCX and the co-founder of AA

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In January of 1958 Bill Wilson wrote an article in the AA Grapevine magazine titled “The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety.”

In it he addressed the causes of depression, a state he struggled with most of his life.

My basic flaw had always been dependence—almost absolute dependence—on people or circumstances to supply me with prestige, security, and the like. Failing to get these things according to my perfectionist dreams and specifications, I had fought for them. And when defeat came, so did my depression.

Yesterday, The New York Times contained three stories under the heading “Meme with Momentum” in the Sunday Style section. Each took a different look at the term “brat,” which is the title of a Charli XCX album and, by extension, a meme that has became identified with the Presidential campaign of Kamala Harris.

The designer of the Brat album, Peter Saville, explained the garish green color he chose in “You Can’t Escape This Color” by Callie Holterman.

There’s an irreverence about summer, and this feeling of just going crazy. I really hope that the legacy of the album, besides Charli XCX’s amazing music, is that it conjures the feeling of freedom. I think the wave of green that has sort of taken over is because it’s a party and it feels wild. This is not millennial pink. The energy behind it is alive.

Bill Wilson saw overcoming dependency on the expectations of others as the key to emotional sobriety. “Then we can be set free to live and love,” he asserted.

Is there such a thing as political sobriety—a return to honest disagreements about public policy that does not dehumanize? Is that what it means to be be brat in the summer of 2024?

I’d like to think so.