Classes from a bank-robbing guerilla turned president

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Lessons from a bank-robbing guerilla turned president

A decade in the past, the world was briefly enthralled by Jose Mujica. He was the individuals’s president of Uruguay, who shunned his nation’s presidential palace to dwell in a small tin-roofed home along with his spouse and three-legged canine.

c speeches to world leaders, interviews with foreign journalists and documentaries on NetflixPepe Mujica, as he’s universally identified, has shared numerous tales of life tales match for a film. He had robbed banks as a left-wing city guerrilla; survived 15 years as a prisoner, together with from making friends with a frog whereas held in a gap within the floor; and helped flip his small South American nation into one of many world’s healthiest and most socially liberal democracies.

However Mr. Mujica’s legacy can be greater than his colourful historical past and dedication to austerity. He turned probably the most influential and necessary figures in Latin America largely due to his articulate philosophy on the best way to a greater society and a happier life.

Now, as Mr. Mujica says, he’s preventing dying. In April, he introduced he would bear radiation for a tumor in his esophagus. At 89 and already identified with an autoimmune illness, he admitted the highway to restoration can be powerful.

Final week I traveled to the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, to go to Mr. Mujica in his three-room house, full of books and jars of pickled greens, on the small farm the place he has been rising chrysanthemums for many years. Because the solar set on a winter day, he was wearing a winter jacket and woolen hat in entrance of a wooden range. The therapy left him weak and barely consuming.

“You are speaking to a wierd previous man,” he mentioned, leaning down to take a look at me carefully, a twinkle in his eye. “I do not slot in at present’s world.”

And so we started.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

how is your well being

I had radiation remedy. The docs mentioned it went effectively, however I am devastated.

(No immediate.)

I believe humanity is doomed as it’s.

why do you say that

We waste lots of time for nothing. We will dwell extra peacefully. Take Uruguay. Uruguay has 3.5 million individuals. It imports 27 million pairs of sneakers. We make garbage and work with ache. for what

You might be free if you escape the regulation of necessity—if you spend the time of your life doing what you want. In case your wants multiply, you spend your life assembly these wants.

People can create infinite wants. The market dominates us and robs us of our lives.

Humanity must work much less, have extra free time and be extra grounded. Why a lot rubbish? Why must you change your automotive? Changing the fridge?

There is just one life and it ends. It’s a must to make sense of it. Attempt for happiness, not simply wealth.

Do you consider that humanity can change?

It could actually change. However the market may be very robust. It has generated a unconscious tradition that dominates our intuition. That is subjective. It’s unconscious. It made us voracious customers. We dwell to purchase. We work to purchase. And we dwell to pay. Credit score is a faith. So we’re form of screwed.

You do not appear to have a lot hope.

Biologically I’ve hope as a result of I consider in man. However on reflection, I am a pessimist.

However your speeches typically have a optimistic message.

As a result of life is gorgeous. With all its ups and downs, I like life. And I am dropping it as a result of it is time to go. What which means can we give to life? Man, in comparison with different animals, has the power to discover a function.

Or not. When you do not discover it, the market could have you paying payments for the remainder of your life.

When you discover it, you should have one thing to dwell for. Those that examine, those that play music, those that love sports activities, all the things. One thing that fills your life.

Why did you select to dwell in your personal house as president?

The cultural remnants of feudalism stay. The purple carpet. The glasshouse. Presidents like to be praised.

I as soon as went to Germany and was picked up in a Mercedes-Benz. The door weighed about 3000 kg. They put 40 bikes within the entrance and one other 40 within the again. I used to be ashamed.

Now we have a home for the president. It is 4 flooring. To drink tea, you must stroll three blocks. Ineffective. They need to make it a highschool.

How would you prefer to be remembered?

Ah, as I’m: a loopy previous man.

Is that each one? You probably did rather a lot.

I’ve one factor. The magic of phrases.

The e book is man’s best invention. Too dangerous individuals learn so little. They do not have time.

These days, individuals learn rather a lot from their telephones.

4 years in the past I threw mine away. It drove me loopy. He talks nonsense all day.

We should study to talk to the person inside us. He was the one who saved my life. As I used to be single for a few years, this caught with me.

Once I’m within the area working with the tractor, I generally cease to see a child chicken making its nest. He was born with this system. He’s now an architect. Nobody has taught him. Are you aware the hornero chicken? They’re perfect masons.

I love nature. I’ve virtually a form of pantheism. It’s a must to have eyes to see it.

Ants are a few of the actual communists on the market. They’re much older than us and can outlive us. All of the creatures of the colony are very robust.

Again to telephones: Are you saying they’re an excessive amount of for us?

It isn’t the telephone’s fault. We’re those who should not prepared. We misuse it.

Kids stroll round with a college of their pocket. that is nice However we have superior extra in expertise than in values.

But the digital world is the place a lot of life is lived.

Nothing replaces that. (He gestures to the 2 of us speaking.) This isn’t transferable. We do not simply converse by phrases. We talk with gestures, with our pores and skin. Direct communication is indispensable.

We’re not that robotic. Now we have realized to suppose, however we’re emotional beings first. We consider that we determine with our heads. Many occasions the top finds arguments to justify selections made by the intestine. We’re not as conscious as we appear.

And that is good. This mechanism is what retains us alive. It’s just like the cow that follows what’s inexperienced. If there may be inexperienced, there may be meals. Will probably be arduous to surrender who we’re.

You’ve gotten mentioned previously that you do not consider in God. What’s your view of God at this level in your life?

Sixty p.c of humanity believes in one thing and that needs to be revered. There are unanswered questions. What’s the which means of life? the place we come from the place we go

We don’t take flippantly the truth that we’re an ant within the infinity of the universe. We’d like God’s hope as a result of we need to dwell.

Do you could have any God?

No. I’ve lots of respect for individuals who consider. It is sort of a consolation when you find yourself confronted with the thought of ​​dying.

As a result of the contradiction of life is that it’s a organic program designed to wrestle to dwell. However from the second this system begins, you’re sentenced to dying.

Biology appears to be an necessary a part of your worldview.

We’re interdependent. We couldn’t dwell with out the prokaryotes we’ve got in our intestine. We rely on quite a few errors that we do not even see. Life is a series and nonetheless filled with mysteries.

I hope human life can be prolonged, however I fear. There are lots of loopy individuals with atomic weapons. Quite a lot of bigotry. We should always construct windmills. We nonetheless spend on weapons.

What a posh animal man is. He’s each sensible and silly.

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