In welcoming Pope Benedict, a.k.a. "Eggs," our president invoked His Royal Popeness's oft-used phrase the "dictatorship of relativism." Here's the original quote:
"In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this "dictatorship of relativism."
Now, coming from a man who gets ferried around in a Popemobile is one thing: he's a salesman, after all. But what do these words mean coming from our president? After some autocratic reflection, we realized that they go right to the heart of his political vision (think: "Clydesdale sunglasses"); indeed, taken a step further, to his very soul. This is his world, a world of moral clarity, right and wrong, good guys and "evildoers."
Just so he doesn't wear the phrase out, we offer the following synonyms:
"tyranny of complexity"
"oppression of open-mindedness"
"totalitarianism of anything that requires me to think really hard"
"You're either with us or-- what was the question again?"
original speech available at whitehouse.gov(not .com!)
