Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

We live in a post-truth age where personal belief and emotion trump objective facts. But when heartfelt emotion meets the hard truth of objective reality there is conflict and confusion. The latest comes from the Netherlands where 69-year-old Emile Ratelband is suing to legally change his age. After all, he feels like he's 20 years younger. Ratelband argued before a judge that his official age doesn't reflect his emotional state. He said that he's limited by being 69 whereas by being 49, he has more job opportunities and more possibilities on Tinder, a popular dating app. This all sounds like Alice in Wonderland stuff, but until people accept the idea of absolute, unchangeable truth we will continue down the rabbit hole of nonsense.