The most absurd misinterpretation which can be applied to the new mechanics is to interpret it as one more offspring of the old philosophic relativism, of which it is in fact the executioner. In the old relativism our knowledge is relative because what we aspire to know, viz., space-time reality, is absolute and we cannot attain to it. Relativity has to do not with relativism but with relation. The reality is in the relation, thus making observers an integral part of reality, as Toolan eloquently describes in other contexts. Einstein's own political and social activities demonstrate that he held principles he believed to be true, not the product of anybody's subjectivity.
Relativism provides no protection against their subjective commitments.
It seems to me that this has already taken place in the minds of most Catholics, who revere the pope and go out by the hundreds of thousands to greet him, and yet disagree with some of his dogmatic statements. They listen to his teaching with reverence, as they would to a grandfather who holds a family together, and they recognize that role as being much more important than any particular pronouncement. I wonder if O'Brien realized that he got his insight from the practice of the people.