In a column I wrote back in July, I quoted George Orwell's immortal words regarding the power of government to alter reality: "In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense." On November 17th, the European Union revealed what ought to be considered a "watershed" moment of philosophical bankruptcy: Brussels bureaucrats banned all advertising which claims water can prevent….dehydration.
