The World According to Oatney

The dictatorship of relativism

Many have wondered just what it is that Pope Benedict XVI means when he talks about a "dictatorship of relativism." After all, faith gives the appearance to the unbeliever of being the Great Restrictor-it is that thing which tells us what we cannot do, as opposed to what we can do. So goes the prevailing mentality of the world of today.

In the Europe of today, a continent of which Benedict is a product, the Christianity that built the great European states into powers of the world, and the Church which united Europe under one Christian banner, are viewed as a historical afterthought. Faith is outmoded, outdated, and is viewed as a relic of the past, not applicable to the modern era. What makes this view a dictatorship of relativism is that this line of thought is so prevalent in modern circles of European politics and academia that those who take the opposing point of view (that the fall of Christianity in the West is leading to Europe's cultural collapse) are labeled as fascists, fanatics, or freaks. The relativists are forcing their view upon Western society and culture, and they leave no room for opposition.

The French Revolution (arguably the greatest attack by the powers of Hell on the Divine Order in the modern era) can be pointed to as the root of this modern relativism, and because of that, America was immune to it for many years, especially since our War for Independence was less an attack on the established order of things and more a crusade for self-government. Most importantly, the American Revolution was not an anti-religious conflict. The anti-God mentality of the Euro-secularists is slowly creeping into the US in our movies, in the so-called popular culture, in the mass media, and in print. Like their European counterparts, the American leftist elite seeks to use the media to control the agenda. They leave no room for the opposing view. This is what Benedict means by the "dictatorship of relativism."

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 10:52 AM