STRAWS IN THE WIND:
A new political and moral map for Australia?

by Max Teichmann

News Weekly, August 2, 2008
I don't think many people were prepared for the magnitude of the events of the papal visit, and we are still struggling to comprehend the extent of its success.

What we have seen is the nearest approach to the expression of the will of the people - certainly the most striking representation of a version of the popular will for a very long time.

Five times the size of the much-touted Vietnam Moratorium of 1970, which was, in a sense, a one-day stand.

And then there has been Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, year after year, which has been the measure of the counter-culture, and heavily sponsored and endorsed by our media.

We at last have a political and moral map of Australia and its Catholic youth.

I will leave this story for others to recount, but would like to return to it at a later date.

Some friends of mine are moving to collect things I have written over many years. I wish them luck.

They are discovering all manner of things, and I might present a few prophetic pieces from the late '60s and early '70s.

Some of you will be surprised. I was.

But I will leave that again to the future.

Meantime, let us digest the implications of what has just happened in Australia.

- Max Teichmann