Vale Max Teichmann, died 29 November 2008
I knew of Max Teichmann (seen here at his Monash Uni retirement party) long before I met him. I remember his commentaries on ABC radio when I was a teenager. I do not remember agreeing with them much, but I do remember the rich voice, somewhat sarcastic and knowing wit and wide-ranging subject matter and references.
Years later, I met him via a discussion group I a member of. He attended regularly until he became too sick to congenially do so.
The child of a German father and Australian mother growing up in Carlton in the 1930s, he had an affectionate view of Australia and Australians marked by a very European perspective, something that comes out in this piece from the Nation Review in the early 1970s.
Someone who knew him far better than I emailed me to say: Max was the son of a German father and Australian mother, so he straddled the immigrant/host divide. He was never of the old left, but he was part of the new left, being one of its founders. Intellectually, he was a realist who valued empirical facts. His objection to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war was from a realist perspective and due to an appreciation of the national interest. He was never a Marxist or pacifist. His appreciation of facts led to his later alienation from the Left as they increasingly demoted facts when they no longer went their way.
He was also a Freudian, hence his cynicism about human nature and his appreciation of human folly and frailty.
He thought that the Western tradition and civilisation was worthy. He never called himself a liberal but he thought that respect for the individual was a sound basis upon which to organise a society. He was conservative in the sense that he understood the value of pre-capitalist values, also known as traditional values, like honour, duty, loyalty and courage. He was very much a culture warrior, nearly all of whom began on the Left. He greatly valued intellectual freedom.
He has been described as a “born-again” conservative, but that is, as the above comments suggest, too simple. Yes, Max appreciated that Western civilisation had created very decent societies - particularly in the case of Australia. Yes, he had great respect for Western intellectual traditions. Yes, he had great contempt for those who enjoyed the benefits of both without having any respect for either. But he was a partial-fellow-traveller rather than a conservative as such. He was simply too sharply aware of things left out, of the effort required to achieve genuine progress, to muster the selective complacency that often underpins genuine conservatism: just as he had too much personal and historical memory to be impressed by the ephemera of contemporary moral and intellectual posturing.
He was a very direct person. He would tell you what he thought without being either insulting or evasive. He had an independent-minded self-confidence that was very engaging and kept you on your intellectual toes. He was not like anyone else, he was too much a person of very specific parts and perceptions.
Once he stopped coming to the discussion group, I never had any direct contact with him, but a mutual friend would relay some of his more piquant observations and his health. I was aware of his continuing physical decline, but I am saddened by his death. A person who was very pointedly himself with a great sense of life.
His funeral is at St Peter’s Anglican Church Albert St, East Melbourne (opposite St Patrick’s Cathedral) at 1pm tomorrow (Friday).
Years later, I met him via a discussion group I a member of. He attended regularly until he became too sick to congenially do so.
The child of a German father and Australian mother growing up in Carlton in the 1930s, he had an affectionate view of Australia and Australians marked by a very European perspective, something that comes out in this piece from the Nation Review in the early 1970s.
Someone who knew him far better than I emailed me to say: Max was the son of a German father and Australian mother, so he straddled the immigrant/host divide. He was never of the old left, but he was part of the new left, being one of its founders. Intellectually, he was a realist who valued empirical facts. His objection to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war was from a realist perspective and due to an appreciation of the national interest. He was never a Marxist or pacifist. His appreciation of facts led to his later alienation from the Left as they increasingly demoted facts when they no longer went their way.
He was also a Freudian, hence his cynicism about human nature and his appreciation of human folly and frailty.
He thought that the Western tradition and civilisation was worthy. He never called himself a liberal but he thought that respect for the individual was a sound basis upon which to organise a society. He was conservative in the sense that he understood the value of pre-capitalist values, also known as traditional values, like honour, duty, loyalty and courage. He was very much a culture warrior, nearly all of whom began on the Left. He greatly valued intellectual freedom.
He has been described as a “born-again” conservative, but that is, as the above comments suggest, too simple. Yes, Max appreciated that Western civilisation had created very decent societies - particularly in the case of Australia. Yes, he had great respect for Western intellectual traditions. Yes, he had great contempt for those who enjoyed the benefits of both without having any respect for either. But he was a partial-fellow-traveller rather than a conservative as such. He was simply too sharply aware of things left out, of the effort required to achieve genuine progress, to muster the selective complacency that often underpins genuine conservatism: just as he had too much personal and historical memory to be impressed by the ephemera of contemporary moral and intellectual posturing.
He was a very direct person. He would tell you what he thought without being either insulting or evasive. He had an independent-minded self-confidence that was very engaging and kept you on your intellectual toes. He was not like anyone else, he was too much a person of very specific parts and perceptions.
Once he stopped coming to the discussion group, I never had any direct contact with him, but a mutual friend would relay some of his more piquant observations and his health. I was aware of his continuing physical decline, but I am saddened by his death. A person who was very pointedly himself with a great sense of life.
His funeral is at St Peter’s Anglican Church Albert St, East Melbourne (opposite St Patrick’s Cathedral) at 1pm tomorrow (Friday).