HOW TO BE TRULY FREE
I plan to learn more about how to be truly free from 89-year-old ex-Uruguay president Pepe Jose´Mujica. He is one of those iconic figures who lived many lives. Experience, time, character, and good books all contributed to the unique flavor of his wisdom.
He had robbed banks as a leftist urban guerrilla and survived 15 years as a prisoner. During a long time of isolation, he befriended a frog to remain sane (check the book The President and the Frog). Once released from prison (1985), he entered mainstream politics.
Twenty-five years later, having charmed the country with his modest way of living and bracingly spontaneous campaign style, he was elected Uruguay’s 40th president. From 2010 to 2015, he helped transform his small South American nation (Uruguay) into one of the world’s healthiest and most socially liberal democracies.
He became one of Latin America’s most influential and vital figures largely because of his plain-spoken philosophy on the path to a better society and happier life. And this is how I learned to appreciate Pepe.
“He is still an international celebrity — because of his lifestyle rather than the relatively tame progressive policies he promulgated in office. His circumstances are so humble they are almost a form of ostentation. As head of state, he refused to reside in the presidential palace and preferred his old Volkswagen Beetle to the usual black limousine”.
By stating that “a poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more,” he could sound naif, backward, Amish, libertarian, or grumpy like your old Uncle Jerry.
Still, you won´t fail to notice how his practical wisdom shared in books, interviews, and speeches, rhymes with the golden rules of modern personal finance and life coaches authors:
– Control your needs and wants (fight lifestyle creep)
– Value and protect your time, the real limited asset (F.I.R.E. movement; Your money or your life)
– Buy quality assets (be frugal, not cheap; F.I.R.E. movement)
– Read and learn (personal growth)
– Search for your meaning in life (Viktor Frankl)
PEPE´s SPEECH TO THE UNITED NATIONS – HOW TO BE TRULY FREE
During the Rio +20 UN meeting in June 2012, as President of Uruguay, he gave this touching speech (extract):
(…) Today, man does not govern the forces he has unleashed, but rather, it is these forces that govern man; and life. Because we do not come into this planet simply to develop, just like that, indiscriminately.
We come into this planet to be happy. Because life is short and it slips away from us. And no material belonging is worth as much as life, and this is fundamental.
But if life is going to slip through my fingers, working and over-working in order to be able to consume more, and the consumer society is the engine-because ultimately, if consumption is paralyzed, the economy stops, and if you stop economy, the ghost of stagnation appears for each one of us, but it is this hyper-consumption that is harming the planet.
And this hyper-consumption needs to be generated, making things that have a short useful life, in order to sell a lot. Thus, a light bulb cannot last longer than 1000 hours. But there are light bulbs that last 100,000 hours! But these cannot be manufactured, because the problem is the market, because we have to work and we have to sustain a civilization of “use and discard”, and so, we are trapped in a vicious cycle. These are problems of a political nature, which are showing us that it’s time to start fighting for a different culture.
I’m not talking about returning to the days of the caveman, or erecting a “monument to backwardness.” But we cannot continue like this, indefinitely, being ruled by the market, on the contrary, we have to rule over the market.
This is why I say, in my humble way of thinking, that the problem we are facing is political. The old thinkers. Epicurus, Seneca and even the Aymara put it this way, a poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more.” This is a cultural issue”. (…)
PEPE´s DROPS OF WISDOM – HOW TO BE TRULY FREE
Pepe´s interviews and articles are full of punchlines. These are my favorite so far:
- “I consume what is necessary but I do not accept waste. Because when I buy something I do not buy it with money, but with the time of my life that it took to earn it. And the time of life is a commodity towards which one must be stingy. One must conserve it for the things that we enjoy and motivate us. This time for oneself I call freedom. And if you want to be free, you must be sober in your consumption. The alternative is to be enslaved by work in order to afford conspicuous consumption that, however, deprives you of time to live”.
“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. Humanity needs to work less, have more free time and be more grounded. Why so much garbage? Why do you have to change your car? Change the refrigerator? There is only one life and it ends. You have to give meaning to it. Fight for happiness, not just for wealth”.
“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”.
“Biologically, I do have hope because I believe in man., But when I think about it (if humanity can change), I’m pessimistic.”
“What a complicated animal man is. He’s both smart and stupid”.
“The book is the greatest invention of man. It’s a shame that people read so little. They don’t have time”.
- “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”.
He has been called “the president philosopher,” “the world´s poorest president,” and “the humblest leader.” I find him a fascinating character. Certainly, someone who practiced stoic frugality, simplicity, and contentment without having to read the Daily Stoic on the smartphone, as I do 🙂
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