I am betting that very few who are reading this blog posting, and who are, therefore, seeing the picture above, will be able to identify the person pictured.
If I told you that the person pictured was formerly the president of a country you have heard of, and a country you may even know something about, I am betting that many people who are reading this blog posting would be quite surprised. This person doesn't really look like a former president, does he? Given the person's name (José Mujica), I am betting that only a very few would know anything about him, or have any idea of who Mujica is (or was).
Until I read an article in the August 24, 2024, edition of The New York Times, I would have had no idea about who the person depicted was, and if given his name, I don't think I could have told you a thing about him. I don't think I would have even recognized his name.
That's my loss! This blog posting is my attempt to make sure you aren't as much in the dark as I was about former president Mujica.
You can click the following link for a Wikipedia write up on Mujica.
If you do click that link, you will learn that Mujica, born on May 20, 1935, is "a Uruguayan politician, former revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015." A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, Mujica was tortured and imprisoned for fourteen years during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008, and he was a Senator afterwards. As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office as president on 1 March 1, 2010. He was the Second Gentleman of Uruguay from September 13, 2017 to March 1, 2020, when his wife Lucia Topolansky was vice president.
Better than reading Wikipedia, I recommend that you read the Times' article I have already mentioned. Online, the Times' article is titled, "How to Be Truly Free: Lessons From a Philosopher President."
Mujica is 89 years old, and is battling cancer. Jack Nicas, the Brazil bureau chief for The Times, based in Rio de Janeiro, visited with Mujica in August. Nicas reports that Mujica describes himself as "fighting death." Nicas also says, though, that "Mr. Mujica’s legacy will be more than his colorful history.... He became one of Latin America’s most influential and important figures in large part for his plain-spoken philosophy on the path to a better society and happier life."
If you can do it, you should read Nicas' report in its entirety. It may well be the case, however, for nonsubscribers, that The Times' paywall will shut you out. If that's the case, I suggest that you think about the few excerpts I am posting below.
Nicas doesen't call Mujica a "philosopher president" for nothing!
How is your health?They did radiation treatment on me. My doctors said it went well, but I’m broken. (Unprompted.) I think that humanity, as it’s going, is doomed.
Why do you say that?We waste a lot of time uselessly. We can live more peacefully. Take Uruguay. Uruguay has 3.5 million people. It imports 27 million pairs of shoes. We make garbage and work in pain. For what? You’re free when you escape the law of necessity — when you spend the time of your life on what you desire. If your needs multiply, you spend your life covering those needs. Humans can create infinite needs. The market dominates us, and it robs us of our lives.Do you believe that humanity can change?It could change. But the market is very strong. It has generated a subliminal culture that dominates our instinct. It’s subjective. It’s unconscious. It has made us voracious buyers. We live to buy. We work to buy. And we live to pay. Credit is a religion. So we’re kind of screwed up.Yet your speeches often have a positive message.Because life is beautiful. With all its ups and downs, I love life. And I’m losing it because it’s my time to leave. What meaning can we give to life? Man, compared to other animals, has the ability to find a purpose. Or not. If you don’t find it, the market will have you paying bills the rest of your life. If you find it, you will have something to live for. Those who investigate, those who play music, those who love sports, anything. Something that fills your life.How would you like to be remembered?Ah, like what I am: a crazy old man.That’s all? You did a lot.I have one thing. The magic of the word. The book is the greatest invention of man. It’s a shame that people read so little. They don’t have time. Nowadays people do much of their reading on phones. Four years ago, I threw mine away. It made me crazy. All day talking nonsense. We must learn to speak with the person inside us. It was him who saved my life. Since I was alone for many years, that has stayed with me.Yet the digital world is where ... life is now lived.Nothing replaces this. (He gestures at the two of us talking.) This is nontransferable. We’re not only speaking through words. We communicate with gestures, with our skin. Direct communication is irreplaceable.Biology is an important part of your worldview.We are interdependent. We couldn’t live without the prokaryotes we have in our intestine. We depend on a number of bugs that we don’t even see. Life is a chain and it is still full of mysteries. I hope human life will be prolonged, but I’m worried. There are many crazy people with atomic weapons. A lot of fanaticism. We should be building windmills. Yet we spend on weapons. What a complicated animal man is. He’s both smart and stupid.
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