 Black Panther is the latest smash hit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and this story revolves around Prince T'Challa turning into the king of Wakanda and the villain Killmonger coming back trying to take over Wakanda and being the man. But in this video we're actually going to be talking about the civilization of Wakanda and the parallels drawn between this city as well as the alcoholics anonymous. So stay tuned. What is up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And yes today I'm going to be drawing some parallels between Wakanda in Black Panther and 12 step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. So before we get started I got two, yes count them two disclaimers to give you real quick. The first one is there will be very very minor spoilers of the film in this movie. So if you plan on seeing it and don't want anything spoiled you might want to turn it off come back check in later but like I said minor spoilers. The second thing I want to make very clear as part of this disclaimer is that I am not a representative of Alcoholics Anonymous or any other 12 step program. This video is merely for educational purposes and to kind of make you think a little and just want to start a conversation about this. Alright so let's get started. So in Black Panther like I said it's about T'Challa turning into the king of Wakanda. And the villain in this movie is Killmonger and he's an excellent character he's very deep like a lot of different layers to him. And Wakanda is this civilization that's been around for thousands and thousands of years and they are extremely advanced okay because of the vibranium that they have they mine it and it's help their technology. So like they are like maybe hundreds or even thousands of years ahead of pretty much anyone else on the planet Earth but they use this invisible cloak so nobody really knows what Wakanda is. A lot of people think that Wakanda is actually like this third world country with nothing really but like they're really like in this kind of utopian like dream land right. And something about what Wakanda is is that they don't get involved with any kind of outside issues okay so Wakanda is made up of multiple tribes and they kind of resolve anything within their own government and they leave the rest of the world alone. So meanwhile there's wars and poverty and all these things going on and Wakanda doesn't even accept refugees right. So Killmonger one of the layers to him is that he is of Wakandan blood. His dad was from Wakanda and he kind of wants to come back take over Wakanda but since he grew up in Oakland he sees that there's a lot of issues in the world especially when it comes to the oppression of black people. So he believes that Wakanda should be doing more and helping the rest of the world and this is kind of where T'Challa aka Black Panther where he kind of you know he has this kind of internal conflict because the traditions of Wakanda and never being part of any of these outside issues. So part of my job working at a drug and alcohol rehab center is I try to sell people on 12-step programs like I'm very open-minded I think a lot of different programs work for different people but I'm of the belief from my personal experience that 90% or more of people who don't even give 12-step programs a try are because they don't fully understand them. So what this video is and you know the lessons I teach I really just try to educate people about what this is like don't say this isn't gonna work just because you don't really understand how it works but anyways in this video I kind of wanted to draw the parallels between 12-step programs and Wakanda and I want to talk about two traditions specifically. All right if you haven't yet like I will put a link in the info card above as well as in the end screen for a video I did about Russell Brand's book recovery asking did he break the traditions. All right so the first tradition that I want to talk about is tradition 10. All right which states alcoholist synonymous has no opinion on outside issues hence the AA name will never be drawn into public controversy. So never being drawn in public controversy and something that I've taken issue with and I've done another video which I'll link in the info card about the truth about AA success rates. So one of the things is that they don't get drawn into public controversy but there are many people out there who try to tarnish the AA name. So you have professionals who say that 12-step programs don't work and they are like detriment to people's mental health and all these other things but 99% of the people writing these articles and tarnishing the name of AA there's even a book out there written about it. These people have never ever ever worked a 12-step program so it's a little ridiculous to you know bash a program that you've never actually worked so you don't even fully have the knowledge of it but you have never seen a public debate about this right and it's because one of the traditions is that we never get drawn into public controversy. So my argument to that is how many people are missing the benefits or potential benefits of this program because of what they've heard these horror stories about 12-step programs and maybe the information that they were getting wasn't exactly credible. So is AA or any other 12-step program really spreading the message properly if they don't you know present a counter to some of these potential falsehoods that are being brought up about the program and in Black Panther you know they talk about these other wars that are going on in the world and Wakanda is extremely technologically advanced not only do they have like flying like ships and stuff like that but they're very advanced in weaponry too so you know Wakanda like they have a lot of power and that's something that Kilmonger's trying to get a hold of but like are they really doing a service to the world if they're letting you know in the Marvel Cinematic Universe people like you know Red Skull like try to do the whole Nazi agenda you know should they you know get out of their bubble and be drawn into that kind of public controversy you see what I'm saying all right the next tradition that I want to bring up is this one tradition 11 our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press radio and films so last night I actually went to an awesome recovery event here in Las Vegas and typically at recovery events you will see 12-step programs represented okay but one of the primary purposes of 12-step programs is to help the next person who's suffering and in this instance I truly believe that a lot a lot is taken um out of context of what the original founders of 12-step programs are really trying to accomplish and I don't think that when they wrote the book of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1930s I don't think they fully understood what the addiction epidemic would look like in 2018 they didn't realize that every year tens of thousands of people would be dying from the disease of addiction right so when we're talking about this and Wakanda well they talk about how Wakanda doesn't take in refugees right and it's because people don't understand that Wakanda exists and they have like not only do they have all this technology but like they're healing they're the way that they can heal people is insane it's crazy and I won't spoil that for you but like they have a lot that can really help the world so when it comes to 12-step programs I often wonder like how many people are never being introduced to 12-step programs because a they don't know they exist or b they don't understand how they can help them you know so I don't necessarily think that you know AA or NA should go put up billboards and start doing commercials or anything along those lines but should they be represented a little bit more in in public so people know that they're there and I'm speaking from personal experience in my active drug and alcohol addiction I didn't know anything anything about 12-step programs aside from like one or two things that I just heard in passing I didn't understand that they could literally help save my life so when we're talking about the traditions and things like that and the primary purpose of these 12-step programs which is to help as many people as possible who are struggling with addiction the question I just want to bring up with you is like do you think that they are being of maximum benefit to the rest of the world and people struggling with addiction if they aren't really spreading the word out there you know what I mean so just something to kind of think about I just wanted to kind of make this video it's just an interesting topic as I mentioned at the beginning like don't try to excommunicate me I am not a representative of any 12-step program but I try to present people with a whole menu a whole menu of options for recovery and just give them the truth about every single one you know what I mean so I educate people in my drug and alcohol rehab about 12-step programs about smart recovery about refuge recovery I'm very open-minded about this stuff I just want people to have the proper information out there but anyways anyways I would love to know your thoughts on this I hope you don't hate me but leave your comments down below and you know what I would love to know if you saw Black Panther I'm actually going to go see it again this weekend so leave comments down below if you've seen the movie and let me know what you thought all right but anyways if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new here I'll make a ton of videos about addiction recovery as well as a bunch of videos to help you out with your mental health click the round subscribe button and you can click on top right over there check out my video that I did about Russell Branding the tradition alright thanks for watching I'll see you next time