The title is a sentence in the big book.  The next paragraph goes on to say there are certain consequences that follow, and it is safe to assume those will all be negative.  It's not the consequence that allows us to reason ourselves into a state where we can say no, it is the lack of ability to acknowledge consequences are unbearable and we are powerless over them too, after we drink.  In my case it wasn't just the powerlessness over alcohol, it was powerlessness over all the shit storms that followed, all the negative consequences.  

This is why willpower, for the alcoholic, can be dangerous.  Willpower in this world is a honorable virtue that most benefit greatly from.  The principle of perserverance, sticking to things, and accomplishing what set our minds out to do is something all promote or speak of when asked about success.  For the non-alcoholic is not problematic, in areas outside of alcohol too.  For the alcoholic however, great amounts of willpower (if not used correctly and with God's plan in mind) can have devastating consequences.  

If our ego is telling us we don't need God, or for some, we are not worth of God's love and help (self-pity), we will push on with self-reliant willpower, hoping to defy the odds that we will crossover one night and miraculously be able to drink just one!  

At this point is is wise to conceed, accept, and move on from the debate in our mind that drives us crazy before we completely understand we can not live a life worth living if we are drinking alcohol.  

When our thinking won't open to the fact that we cannot stop on our willpower alone, we are beyond human aid, we need a higher power's help.  If we don't accept we cannot drink in this life further, the next progression is death or insanity.  Some say Jail is an option too.  Hardly an "option".  

The author of the big book calls it a "stark" and "ugly" fact that we have to either admit and conceed our willpower is flawed when it comes to complete control of our drinking and ceasing, or either die or go insane.  Most new alcoholics are in too much of a deluded or delusional state to fully understand the gravity of that reality.  That is why the "low-bottom" drunks who have near death experiences seem to change over night and the "high-bottom" drunks have to whine a bit longer and see a little more pain before they are completely convinced.  

The great news is on Pg. 25.  

For a loving God it isn't good enough for his children to be stricken with an illness they have no power over to be allowed with no remedy.  

There is a solution, and the literature talks about how it is a plan of self-searching (not accusation of others), addressing our pride (not speaking as if we are the greatest thing since sliced bread), being open and honest about our imperfections (not bragging and boasting about how awesome we are), and if we do those things, we will have SUCCESSFULLY CONSUMED  the keys to life going forward.  It is interesting how the author uses words that stresses looking at ourselves and seeing it from objective points of view.  One example would be "I am a theif", and then seeing pride would have me be one, and that I need to not be a theif no more, end of story.  Not "I am a theif because Jimbo stole my wallet when I was 12 and Sharon owes me booze money, and the garbage man looked at me sideways so fuck it I am going to steal 1000 dollars from this old lady out of spite for the world and for the bum rap God gave me." LOL!  That is how unrecovered alcoholics think!  That is how I used to think.  

It's is important to note that the author really is advising us to not put too much stock in the pride agenda, the manufacturing of self-esteem with our minds that requires long winded arguments and much time wasted promoting biased and opinionated thoughts of ourselves.  If we are spending more tha 10 hours a day thinking of ourselves or talking about ourselves, we need to get over ourselves, and start considering action plans for others.  The selfishness typhoon that arrives on the horizon from years 3 to 8 in recovery doesn't have to happen if you address your pride and write your pride off with the correct willpower of being in love with humility and serving others with o agenda of seeing a return.  Being part of something, rather than having to direct and orchestrate it to be about you, will save your life, save your from much unecessary misery, and most important will put a huge smile on God's face.  Remember that guy who owns the world and is the creator of every great feeling, thing, and person you have become joy filled from?  

Without defense against that first drink.  If you see it as a win-win situation, and you do or incorporate the steps in to your life, you'll have an experience of spirituality that penetrates into the deepest center of your core, and not only will you see the real you, you'll see yourself as a drunk was just an illness you had no control over, and not the real you.  Alcoholics unrecovered will argue to the death that they are the alcoholic, that they can be nothing better, and it is a lie, I am a child of God, and will always be that much more than someone who grew sick from an inability to control alcohol ingestion.  

Here is the solution.

1.  a starting point of knowing drinking will no longer be a part of my life going forward due to me being unable to drink and then maintain normalcy.  Admitting I am powerless over alcohol and that might be a good thing, because my unmanagable life can not turn over to being managed if I change.  

2.  Come to believe a power, God, can conduct the engine of change it is going to take to get me to the places in life that make me happy and leave me with no reason to drink.  Enter into a phase of belief that God is real, and that God can intervene in my drinking problem and provide nothing but solution going forward.  From here on, nothing but sanity will be produced in me, and it will be much to the amazement of those who knew me as insane beyond repair.  

3.  Make a decision to turn everything over to God.

4.  Do some self-searching, to see what I see inside of me that might be "objectionable."  What inside of me do others not like, and what inside of me or ways of me doing business make people not want to help me?  What is my ego saying to me despite what love has taught me otherwise?  Why would I listen to a world that often gets caught with it's pants down before I listen to the creator of the world who loves it more than the world could ever love itself?  Why would my mind tell me I could wrestle a Lion and maybe win?  LOL!  

5.  Confess the liabilities I have found to an understanding and supportive person.  People find me objectionable when I let my temper explode, when I want my way above theirs, when I am selfish and inconsiderate.  People do not like that I do not like the evil in me, and that I am not interested in knowing them better.  They also don't like that I have no problem using them or asking them for help when they would fare better not helping.  My ego is telling me 24.7 I do not need God, all I need is it, and I will be fine.  A COMPLETE LIE.  My ego lies to me, and it is a blessing to know that at such an early age.  The ego is the most un-cool element in this whole equation, learn the ego, learn it's function, so you can prepare for it's best attempts to blind you from what you must do to sustain the greatest life you could ever imagine.  I admit to God, to myself, and to another person I am by default wrong, for many reasons, with the ego being my director as a constant and consistent adversary.  

6.  I ask for the ego and the objectionable items to be removed, and become humble to the fact that if they stay, life is going to suck, progressively, more and more.  

7.  I again ask for the humility it is going to take for a complete change and revolutionary courage it will take to become the person God always wanted me to be.  

8.  I make a list of those my ego and my defects minmized and saw as less than I.  I become willing to live a life of paying them back, working hard for them, a life that includes me thinking, doing, and serving them for the rest of my days.  

9.  I make direct and a reality the power of letting others know I harmed them that I know were harmed.  I do all I can from here on out to not harm again, and to heal the wounds the harming prior created.

10.  I continue to self-search and look for flaws my ego might have created or defective thinking lead by selfishness, fear, anger, greed, guilt, or shame might have created.  I look for unhealthy or thoughts directed in a godless manner, and I speak with someone about them, and I then ask God to right the wrong, with no fear that it will be anything I won't grow from lovingly.  

11.  I pray and meditate with the objective to get closer to God, it is real, and it works if I do it daily, before I know it, God is as real to me as the air I breathe.  

12.  I give back and spread the message that there is a very real solution that changes us from losers to winners.