Your Choices Are Your Own

In the face of persistent questions about the meaning of her declarations, the Duchess of Crestignac sought to reaffirm an essential principle of public life: the people’s choices belong first and foremost to the people, even when she formulates, corrects or ultimately decides them.

Addressing representatives of Crestignac’s institutions, La DdC rejected any suggestion of a contradiction between her words and the expectations of the population.

For the Duchess, political speech cannot be reduced to what is said. It continues in each person’s listening and becomes, at that precise moment, a collective responsibility.

La DdC then recalled that her writings never came into being on their own. They arise from the requests, expectations and sometimes even the legitimate protests of the people of Crestignac.

Everyone must therefore accept their share in a decision they helped bring into being, even when that decision no longer corresponds exactly to what they thought they had asked for.

The doctrine is now summed up in a simple principle:

To help citizens embrace this new civic responsibility, the Duchess unveiled the watchword that will henceforth accompany public consultations:

The people of Crestignac will remain entirely free to choose. They must simply take care to choose what they will later be able to take responsibility for, once the decision has been officially interpreted.

La DdC specified that no constraint would be imposed on citizens, other than the obligation to accept the consequences of choices whose final wording may be beyond their control.

Monsieur Buskin, Crestignac’s Minister of Education, has been tasked with supporting the scheme. His mission will be to prepare citizens to exercise their freedom properly, even before they know what they wish to choose.

The minister unveiled the educational motto of this new policy:

Asked about the spelling of the word “Éducons” (“Let’s educate”), Monsieur Buskin confirmed that it was not an error, but a direction.

A clothing campaign will accompany the reform. The Duchess will wear the midnight-blue “YOUR CHOICES ARE YOUR OWN” T-shirt, while Monsieur Buskin will sport the burgundy “LET’S EDUCATE YOUR CHOICES!” version. Both garments will bear the golden warthog, Crestignac’s sole official emblem, without a crown or any foreign institutional symbol.

The declaration concluded without questions. La DdC recalled that any request for explanation would risk adding meaning to words that already possessed quite enough.

Citizens were therefore invited to reread her writings, to understand her listening, and freely to take responsibility for the choices that belong to them.

Your choices are your own. La DdC merely keeps them.