Don’t kick yourself. You were on the right track. Albert Schweitzer had the hut right next to Dr. Livingstone’s.
(I made that up. Just trying to support a fellow FReeper.)
Posted on 01/14/2025 2:39:26 PM PST by Borges
Numerous German streets are named after him, as are hundreds of schools, universities and hospitals. Albert Schweitzer — scientist, doctor, philosopher, theologian, author, musician and Nobel Peace Prize winner — was long revered for his humanitarian work in Africa.
The clinic he set up in Lambarene in present-day Gabon in West Africa earned him the moniker, "jungle doctor."
But Schweitzer was also a product of his time. Born in 1875 in Alsace, then part of the German Empire, and today eastern France, he was influenced by the ongoing and brutal colonialization of large parts of Africa by European countries.
Schweitzer, marked by his flowing mustache and thick head of white hair, was a paternalist who saw himself as being on a kind of "civilizing mission" in Africa. He felt called upon to make the population — which he described as "children without culture" — not only healthy but also "civilized."
The doctor's fame at home earned him the attention of the National Socialists — despite his early criticism of Hitler.
Later, an invitation sent to Gabon by Joseph Goebbels is said to have been politely declined by Schweitzer.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
And Stanley Livingstone was also the name of the zookeeper on the Tennessee Tuxedo cartoon series. But I digress...
Well, for the life of me I can’t remember what we were taught Schweitzer was famous for, except for going to Africa.
Don’t kick yourself. You were on the right track. Albert Schweitzer had the hut right next to Dr. Livingstone’s.
(I made that up. Just trying to support a fellow FReeper.)
Is there anyone past, present or future, who has not been, isn’t, or will not be, a product of their time.
Just what exactly is the purpoes of this dismissive?
It is about as revealing as “what is, is”. Kind of an ingredient of a word salad? Let’s ask Ms. VP!
The NYT liberals are dirty savages who should be so lucky that Europeans would try to civilize them. Schweitzer tried his damndest to help the health of the benighted Africans who lacked health care, education and even the rudiments of civilization.
OF COURSE Western civilization tried to help these backward peoples, and they benefitted ENORMOUSLY. Oh my god, they were a thousand years in the past and leaped forward in the space of a century. They should be on their knees thanking the Empires for their benevolent paternalism.
As a descendant of the Third World…my lovely late grandma had no problem saying it was bloody better when the bloody Britishers were here.
He was in his time a sort of secular saint, a model altruist.
That was in its way a creation of newspaper PR of the day. An uncontroversial, non-Catholic “good guy” was needed in a screwed up world, and Schweitzer fit the bill.
He was a genuinely good man without doubt, and did much good.
I interpreted Kipling’s poem as a rueful lament. He believes it’s the white man’s duty to uplift the colored races. He’s not happy about it; the task is difficult and thankless. But it’s the duty of the superior race and he accepts the responsibility.
Kipling can be very squirrelly. I like to try see his stuff in context of his other stuff - The Man Who Would Be King, Kim, etc.
His general POV is fatalistic. The Europeans come, raise a little dust, and move on, as the dust blows away. The civilizing mission is ultimately futile, as the natives will make of it what THEY will, without reference to European intentions or agendas.
Kipling is loaded with irony and sarcasm. These exist in parallel with sentiment and nobility. Everything of his has a sour note somewhere, contrafactual to the theme. He was a complex man, a complex poet.
In “Mandalay” (which voice is a classic “unreliable narrator”) the “An’ the sunshine an’ the palm-trees an’ the tinkly temple-bells” coexist with “With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!”
And etc. I find “The Widow at Windsor” particularly bitter.
“Recessional” was a warning to the Brits not to get overconfident.
That’s a nice thing to say of him. Yes, he certainly did fit the edging toward saint categaroy.
Wish there were more like him. Seems these days the devil and his ways are more impressive to people.
Schweitzer was a great man. Shouldn’t be forgotten,
But...an important point.
I was looking at his public image really, the narrative about him, and why the newspapers covered him. There were certainly lots of saintly Christians around at the time (and some WERE sainted - Saint Damien of Molokai for one). With so many saints running around, why him?
Schweitzer just filled so many requirements. He could be seen as both French and German, straddling one big European divide. He was NOT Catholic, avoiding a precipice of still strong prejudice. He was not involved in the recent Great War and was a pacifist; etc. and etc.
I would start with Kim, his masterpiece. That’s where Kipling showed he knew his subject (subjects) on a level of profundity that I don’t think anyone has approached since. He could, it seems sometimes, inhabit the minds of all the world, wildly diverse as they all are, and make sense of it all.
“The man who would be King” is a parable of conquerors, colonialism and empire, that has never been bettered. If I were teaching a course of history I would make everyone read that first.
I've not read that. But I have read The Secret Agent. A great novel about leftist terrorism, espionage, and public manipulation.
“I’ve heard that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is also a great novel about colonialism.”
It is, or rather it is a novel of post-colonialism. Everyone is dealing with the changes after the empires fade away. And more. Conrad is my man. One of the stars in my night-sky. And think that he was a Pole that learned English, as an adult, THAT well.
The other great post-colonial novel is Naipauls “A bend in the River”. Naipaul is another of my stars.
Hans Delbrück, scientist and saint.
Actually, it's a great film.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.