Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00222)

>---Theosophical Disclaimer---
>I hereby declare that all statements following this message are NOT 
>facts, theories, hypothesi, opinions, declarations, revelations, or 
>assumptions based on accurate investigations or unarguable statistics.  
>I have not called everyone in the world and asked for their opinions on 
>the subjects of which I have made these statements about.  I have not 
>recieved complete autobiographies from the Earth's population of 
>minerals, animals, plants, or humans, and, therefore, any statement 
>herein made is only a generality based on my own personal experiences.  
>If any statement contains sexist, racist, prejudiced, or any other 
>disagreeable material, I apologize profusely.  I can only attribute any 
>insulting statements to the fact that I am not omniscient.  Including 
>the above, all statements contained within the following message are not 
>judgements.  I must repeat this.  Including the above, ALL statements 
>contained within the following message are NOT JUDGEMENTS.  They are 
>solely opinions based on the current experiences of my self.  Any fact, 
>theory, hypothesis, opinion, declaration, revelation, or assumption is 
>mine alone, insofar as I know, and is not necessarily a fact, theory, 
>hypothesis, opinion, declaration, revelation, or assumption of the 
>Theosophical Society, the United States, my family, my friends, my 
>next-door neighbor, his dog, the chrysanthemums that were digested by 
>his cat the day before yesterday, or any one person or group of people 
>which exist in the known or unknown universes or dimensions.
>
>I am not responsible for any misinterpretations, manipulation of 
>definition, unintended insight, or "twisting of words" which result from 
>the following statement or statements.  Unfortunately, once again due to 
>my lack of omniscience, I cannot guarantee that any facts, theories, 
>hypothesi, opinions, declarations, revelations, or assumptions written 
>by myself will be interpreted as they were intended to be.
>
>Any statement or statements made by myself are not intended as attacks 
>on any one person or group or classification of peoples, and are also 
>not intended as a means of classifying one or more persons.  As before 
>stated, they are only statements based on my own experiences in the few 
>years that I have so far lived, and, therefore should not be interpreted 
>as statements which are "written in stone".  I apologize if any 
>statements I make shall have a negative effect on any person, and, if a 
>statement should have such an effect, please remember the first sentence 
>of this paragraph.
>---End of Disclaimer---
>
>Due to the content of recent posts, I have found such a disclaimer to be 
>necessary.  It makes me kind of sad, really, to have to do this.  
>Although it appears to be an attempt at humor, it also contains a 
>somewhat serious message.
>
>If anyone can think of anything which might be added to this disclaimer, 
>please let me know.  This really shouldn't be necessary, but maybe it 
>is?

It wasn't nearly long enough.  I felt personally attacked by the whole
thing, and I may never recover from all of its negative effects.  You
should have apologized for how judgmental you were being in not being
judgmental.  Do you really think you're that superior to judgmental
people?  By claiming non-omniscience, how do you think people who
claim omniscience are going to feel?  And the implicit sexism and
racism that it was full of was obvious to all.  Are you really a
Theosophist?  The "Wheaton oligarchy" might not approve, you know.