Certificate of Independent Thought
Page 1193 It shall certify neither superior intelligence nor immunity from persuasion, error, habit, or influence.
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4 It shall not be described as an academic degree, professional qualification, or license.
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5 Let the bearer remain free to agree with a sound claim and to reconsider a cherished one.
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6 Let the person who declineth a certificate remain no less welcome than the person who frameth it.
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7 Let no examination of private belief, compulsory confession, payment, or membership be the price of this ceremonial copy.
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8 If a frame or printed product is offered for sale, name plainly what the money buys; do not sell a higher grade of freedom.
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9 Let the bearer question the Founder, the host, the Society, the source, and this observance itself.
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10 Yet let no certificate be used to excuse disregard for another’s consent, access, dignity, or safety.
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11 Names and signatures may be left blank. No collection of personal details is required for the private exercise.
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12 The Society may record that a ceremony occurred; it shall not report that a mind was proved independent.
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13 And when the paper is lost, let none announce that the liberty hath expired.
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READING CONVERSATION New Society observance for this fourth book; read with Chapters 1, 11–13.
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This new observance accompanies the certificate; it is not an amendment to the previous three books.
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A CEREMONIAL KEEPSAKE
Certificate of Independent Thought
Recognized, not manufactured.
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This page recognizes
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________________________________
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Name, chosen mark, or an entirely respectable blank
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as a person free to ask, examine, agree, disagree, reconsider, and decide —including concerning the Society of Snake People and this document.