Up to the end of 2025, the online edition of Share International magazine presents a selection of items from the printed edition. Each online edition includes a complete article by Benjamin Creme's Master. Most other articles reproduced here, covering a wide range of topics, are excerpts. The online edition usually also includes a selection of Questions and Answers, Readers' letters, and photographs of Signs of Maitreya's presence. From the beginning of 2026, the printed edition is no longer being produced, but the entire magazine is available on this website.
See the full table of contents of the printed edition at the foot of the page.
From the inception of Share International magazine, Benjamin Creme’s Master provided an article every month for nearly 35 years. These were intended to be published not only at the time they were written, but also whenever appropriate according to world circumstances.
The question of human rights is at the centre of modern man’s problems. In the past, the social structures dominated the lives of the individual and set up a hierarchical series of relationships in which everyone knew his place: the wife obeyed the husband; the man obeyed his lord; the lord obeyed and carried out the will of the king; while the clergy acted as intermediaries between God and man. These relationships, while artificial and imposed, served the needs of societies struggling to find their identities and place in the world.
Today, all of this is changed. Apart from a few areas in which the ruling groups cling to the old forms, often at the cost of civil dissension and war, the peoples have asserted their right to self-determination. They have taken upon themselves the responsibility for just government and by various procedures of representation can make their wills known. More than ever before, the peoples are calling for a closer participation in the decisions affecting their lives.
This new freedom has set up a number of tensions which await resolution. Everywhere, the cry for more freedom sounds forth — answered by an equally strident call for order and the rule of law from the groups concerned with maintaining the existing structures. Altogether new approaches are required to harmonize the aims of these opposing groups. That such harmony may be slow and difficult to attain must be accepted. That many conflicting viewpoints must be reconciled is self-evident. Yet while we await the solution of these problems it might be advisable to set down some basic principles, some guidelines, without which the problems may appear to be intractable.
The first consideration is that the laws governing society should be fair and applicable to everyone. Without such basic justice and impartiality no one can be expected to observe the law. Frequently, today, there is “one law for the rich and another for the poor” — a certain recipe for social strife. A further need is for the laws to be known and understood and couched in language accessible to all. Too often are men held prisoner, and judged to be guilty of breaching laws long outmoded and known only to specialists.
The greatest need is for an ever closer identity of interest between the individual and society; only thus can the freedom of one and the stability of the other be preserved. How can this best be achieved?
The United Nations Organization has formulated a code of human rights which, if implemented, would go far to resolve the existing social tensions, and provide the basis for a just and stable society. So far, this Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains but a dream for millions of dispossessed and disfranchised people in every country in the world. The aim must be to establish, with all possible speed, these basic rights in all nations.
With the acceptance of the principle of sharing this becomes possible. No longer need men fight for the right to work, to feed their families, for a measure of control over their destinies. At a stroke, the acceptance of sharing will heal the divisions, end the confrontations and cure the malady of the present situation, leading men out of the morass in which they have foundered. Make sharing then the goal of your endeavour. Show that the world now needs, more than ever in its history, the establishment of this just and basic principle, through the acceptance of which alone man will find and demonstrate his divinity.
(Share International, July/August 1984)
These articles are by a senior member of the Hierarchy of Masters of Wisdom. His name, well-known in esoteric circles, is not yet being revealed. Benjamin Creme, a principal spokesman about the emergence of Maitreya, was in constant telepathic contact with this Master who dictated his articles to him.
We are living at present in that uncertain space that was opened up by the collapse of the old while the new has not yet fully taken shape. Our collective sense of being in suspended animation — in a global guilt-ridden limbo — is heightened by our shared fear and revulsion at the blood-lust and barbaric cruelty perpetrated on Gaza, openly condoned, actively supported or ignored by Western politicians in particular.
Call it what you will — karma, cause and effect, the swing of the pendulum, action and reaction — whatever the term, the fact is that there is always an effect, an equal and opposite reaction. This is a law of physics, of the natural world. It is also the great Law governing all life and all relationship on our planet, and it works on all levels.
What should readers of this magazine make, especially now in today’s horrific circumstances, of the role of this universal law? When you come to think of it, karma is a most extraordinary thing. It is the constant determining factor in our lives. While we may often wish it would go away, we couldn’t do without it. It is life and reality on our planet. Many have learned the hard way that karma gives us lessons and blessings affording us the chance to grow. It is the great Law. And yet. You could be forgiven for thinking that whole nations are ignorant of its inexorable workings. No one escapes the law. In so many countries, leaders, generals, armies and even their citizens have been indoctrinated into living as if it does not exist — neither God’s Law nor man’s law. Worse still is the old fanatical religious belief that God can be manipulated or persuaded and that he is definitely on their side and condones all their evil. And so we are back again in a time of barbarity and lawlessness.
A strange marker of these times is that so many weird convoluted religious and quasi-religious beliefs shape today’s politics, and much seems to hark back to a pre-Christian era where an eye for an eye was the crude basic guideline in social interaction. Such was the lack of understanding of the Law of Cause and Effect. The teachings of Jesus and a new dispensation swept away old precepts which, up to then, had only just managed to maintain a semblance of social order where men were often on the brink of local wars and feuds based on the need for revenge — since one act of violence elicited another equally vicious response to avenge the wrong.
This is disturbingly still the motivating impulse playing out in today’s cruelty and depravity in the genocide in Gaza. Jesus was not recognized as the Messiah and his teachings of the new law have yet to penetrate minds wilfully closed to the new dispensation. Loving one’s neighbour, having a sense of being part of a whole, began to seep very slowly into our consciousness over the last 2,000 years. Maitreya, the World Teacher has brought that law even closer and more attainable: “Take your brother’s need as the measure for your action and solve the problems of the world.” [Message from Maitreya the Christ, No.52].
Maitreya made a series of forecasts to provide guidelines and insight into natural law. These forecasts [in The Laws of Life] were given primarily to illuminate the Law of Cause and Effect. By comprehending and working within this law, Maitreya says, we can resolve the present social, political, economic and environmental crises. What an inspiring and extraordinary thought — living within the law of karma provides in itself a solution to our terrible problems. …
The Master Djwhal Khul writes in The Externalisation of the Hierarchy: “As to Karma, what man has made he can unmake. This is oft forgotten. Karma is not a hard and fast rule. It is changeable, according to man’s attitude and desire. It is the presenting of the opportunity to change; this grows out of past activities, and these, rightly met and correctly handled, lay the foundation for future happiness and progress.”
It may not be “hard and fast” but it is inescapable. There must always be a reckoning. For the world to advance, justice must come. At some point there must come an acknowledgement and atonement; if it doesn’t, then lawlessness with impunity runs rampant and society disintegrates into unimaginable despair. The perpetrators will inevitably have to be held to account — not in hatred or retribution but as a rebalancing and acknowledgement of karmic debt that must be paid — if justice, the law and freedom are to be reinstated as the bedrock of international and national culture. …
Benjamin Creme comments: “The laws of life are few but very powerful. No one pays them much attention. That is why we have our problems. The major law of life is the Law of Cause and Effect; it dominates all life on this planet. Jesus put it very simply: ‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’ It is so simple that people have forgotten it or do not take it in. Whatever you sow, you reap. If you sow corn, you reap corn. If you sow oats, you reap oats. If you sow bad corn, you do not get much of a crop. We are all sowers.
Every thought, every action that we have, sows seeds. They create causes. The effects stemming from the causes make our lives. We are all doing it all the time, making our own lives and the life of humanity. We are all responsible for what happens in the world, for what happens in and through the human race, because we are all part of that race. We all create thoughtforms. These thoughtforms are real. Every time we have a destructive thought, we are destroying a bit of our system. The well-being of the planet depends on the well-being of our thoughts.”
‘Unity in Diversity’ was the theme of Benjamin Creme’s keynote talk at the American and European Transmission Meditation Conferences in 2006. The talk was published in Share International January/February 2007. The following questions and answers were published in the March 2007 issue; they deal with topics still familiar to today’s readers. Mr Creme’s answers explain why we are struggling to find lasting solutions.
We present here phenomena which, to the editors, are “signs of hope” and “signs of the time”. We undertake to be as thorough as possible in our investigation of each ‘miracle’ or ‘sign’ and present them for your consideration only. Further details, when available, are given in the captions to the photographs.
On 27 April 2025, shortly after 9am, I was sitting at my desk talking to a friend on the phone. She wasn’t well. I told her that I had asked Maitreya for support while using Maitreya’s ‘hand card’ to do so. After the phone call, I was surprised to see that there was a handprint in front of the card on the desk. (A.d.B., Munich, Germany)
This section of the magazine is usually reserved for letters describing some encounter or incident that the writer experiences as being ‘different’ in quality and import.
However, Share International occasionally publishes exceptions and the following letter is one such, describing a determined effort to engage a British Member of Parliament in a discussion and to request action to bring pressure to bear to stop Britain’s involvement in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. For its persistence, planning, clarity and success we publish this as a spur to others who may wish to take similar action to counter wrong-doing. This is civil action on behalf of the powerless — precisely what Maitreya, Benjamin Creme and his Master encouraged all who can to dare to do.
Before the UK general election, 2024, there was no way my Member of Parliament (MP), a Conservative, would engage with my views. He just ignored requests to meet. Trying again after the election with the new incumbent, a Labour MP, I’ve managed to have two face-to-face meetings.
The first meeting was in November 2024. From my preparation for that, I learnt that he was genuinely concerned about the toll of civilian casualties and destruction of essential infrastructure. So little time is allocated to such meetings that I took written accounts of the clearly intentional and indiscriminate damage wrought by Israel — particularly on Gaza — to hand to him as evidence.
I went with clear action requests: that he work with like-minded colleagues to press for immediate action to halt the onslaught, resumption of essential aid, and release of the hostages.
For the meeting in May this year [2025], a 10 minute slot at a local surgery, which the MP had offered because he was unable to meet me at the lobby event organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign earlier that same month, I prepared differently. I took a letter that I’d drafted summarizing, as best I could, the present horrors of Israel’s barbaric, Western-backed, medieval siege and requested a response from the relevant ministers. The MP undertook to pass this on and seek a response on my behalf. This is progress! He also said he would consider signing an Early Day Motion (EDM) that I brought to his attention. EDM 221 essentially supports the UN General Assembly’s decision to overwhelmingly adopt the resolution made on 18 September calling for Israel to rapidly end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
However, the item I took with me that really captured the attention of the MP (and his assistant) most was a report from Share International, July/August 2004, titled ‘Israeli cabinet member condemns offensive in Gaza’. It contains quotes from Yosef Lapid — Holocaust survivor and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel at that time. His criticism of the actions of the State of Israel back then was as compelling and prophetic then as it is now.
Lobbying an MP wasn’t an easy thing for me to do, but I was surprised by how supported I felt while preparing for, and during, the meeting. I felt calm and I spoke with a quiet confidence I didn’t know I had. The fact that my wife had come across the 2004 Share International article purely by chance the day before I met my MP certainly added to my feeling this was the right thing to do.
At this point, I can’t say whether these meetings have made any difference, but I would encourage anyone who is not sure to at least give it a try. One never knows where seed thoughts supporting the case for justice and peace planted into the minds of political representatives can lead. The feeling of being supported, when I undertook what felt like a wholly inadequate and seemingly futile exercise in the circumstances, confirmed the importance of keeping going and giving one’s best effort to such opportunities as they come.
We present a selection of quotations on the theme of the imperative for courage, action and a united voice. The quotations are taken from Maitreya (Messages from Maitreya the Christ), Benjamin Creme’s Master (A Master Speaks, Volumes One and Two), and Benjamin Creme’s writings.
Courage
A blueprint for change has caught the imagination of many millions and soon will command the attention of the world. Men have understood that, when organized and brave, they are invincible. Nothing can halt this movement for change. It embodies the concepts of the future and of the Plan. Maitreya has given it voice, which is now the voice of the peoples of the world. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The path to Unity’)If he thinks that they are wrong, it behoves a disciple to say so. If he just skulks and pretends that he has no point of view on the subject, and nothing better, clearer, more true to give, then he is a disciple only in name. The true disciple is the disciple who knows no fear. (Benjamin Creme, The Art of Living)
Action
Many there are whom I call. Many there are who wait and listen. Few there are, indeed, who seize the time and act. These few are My people. May you become one of them. (Maitreya, from Message No. 94)Speaking out with a united voice
The powerful events — now daily happenings — throughout the world are awakening men’s realization that they are witnessing the death-throes of a dying culture, and, by implication, the creation of a new. The form that the new culture might take remains, for the most part, vague and unsubstantial, but one factor has already registered itself in the minds of public and media alike: the growing strength of the people’s voice and the growing determination to make that voice be heard. This is the most important political event of our time. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The people’s voice’)Such is the unhinged, hypocritical state of the world — particularly in the West. To speak the truth about Palestine — to name Israel’s heinous campaign against Palestinians as genocidal, and to stand with the oppressed and starving — is to risk being branded an antisemite or an extremist. The consequences of such perverse labeling are many and far-reaching: social isolation, loss of livelihood, deportation — or worse, total expulsion from public life.
In contrast, say nothing critical of Israel — or almost nothing. Don’t mention the most violent crime against humanity since the Second World War, and you’ll be left alone. At a joint press conference on 19 May 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were asked directly whether Israel is committing genocide. Both, to their utter shame, largely ignored the question — von der Leyen, in particular, failed to summon even the most basic moral integrity.
This evasiveness — combined with the appallingly biased coverage in virtually all mainstream media, most notably the globally influential BBC — has enabled Israel to carry out the systematic genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The BBC is therefore complicit in genocide, as are all the Western governments that have armed, shielded, and politically supported it.
The current Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu — an evil man, if ever there was one — is openly pursuing the total destruction of Palestinian life. In line with the long-held goals of the settler movement, it seeks to annex both Gaza and the West Bank into a Greater Israel.
While tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed — most of them women and children — Western leaders have not merely looked away. They are enabling the slaughter. The United States, foremost among them, has poured billions in military aid into Israel (and continues to do so), despite evidence that these weapons are being used against civilians. In the UK, weak politicians repeated the saccharine mantra of Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’. Germany, paralyized by its own historical guilt, has responded by silencing critics of Israel — banning pro-Palestinian protests, censoring artists, and conflating Palestinian solidarity with antisemitism.
Most Western media has echoed the politicians: major outlets like the BBC and CNN routinely spout Israeli military statements, while treating Palestinian suffering as tragic but somehow inevitable. The word ‘genocide’ is avoided, even as entire families are being erased, neighbourhoods obliterated, and aid convoys bombed. A false equivalence prevails – reducing settler colonialism/apartheid and righteous resistance to a ‘cycle of violence’, erasing Israel’s role as occupier and aggressor.
International journalists have been banned from entering Gaza. The only images and testimonies to reach the world have come from Palestinian reporters already inside — working under siege, and in unimaginable conditions.
More than 100 journalists have been killed since October 2023, making this the deadliest period for the press in modern history. Many were targeted while clearly identified as media workers.
Their deaths — like those of Palestinian civilians — have been met with silence or indifference from governments and Western outlets that, in any other conflict, would have rightly called such killings war crimes. But, presumably because of its big brother, the US, Israel is allowed to get away with anything — murder, starvation as a method of war, ethnic cleansing.
In addition to journalists, aid convoys and UN facilities have been routinely targeted by Israel. Dozens of aid workers from respected organizations — including Médecins Sans Frontières, the World Central Kitchen, and the UN — have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, despite having shared their coordinates with the Israeli military in advance.
Belated words, absent action
Far, far too late and far too weak, there are now tentative signs that the dam of blind support is beginning to splinter. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called Israel a “genocidal state”. The governments of the UK, France, and Canada have begun issuing statements demanding that the killing stop and that Israel allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Such steps, welcome of course, are grossly inadequate. These governments watched the genocide unfold in real time. They have armed it and they continue to defend it. And only now — after months of mass public protest (500,000 people marched in London on 17 May) — are they offering mealy-mouthed objections. Where is their humanity, their principles, their moral courage?
The men and women currently in office in the UK, the US, and across Europe are not leaders. They are weak, manipulative, dishonest salesmen. History will judge them harshly — and rightly so. Their cowardice has cost tens of thousands of lives. They will be remembered as collaborators in genocide — standing not with the victims, but with the killers.
Immediate, decisive action is needed. Israel should be completely isolated from the global community. All arms sales must end — obviously. Sanctions should be imposed not just on individual settlers, but on the state of Israeli itself. All diplomatic ties must be severed. Embassies closed. Palestine recognized as a state by all nations and by the UN. And the principal perpetrators — Netanyahu and his gang of monsters — must be arrested, tried, and sentenced for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Anything less is not justice — it’s a betrayal of humanity, a cowardly act of manipulation that sanctions ongoing slaughter, systemic persecution, and the brutal domination — and looming extermination — of an entire people.
It is only a small, inconspicuous booklet that has been around for several decades, but its topic is timeless and just as relevant and interesting today as it was when it was written. In Talks with Great Composers, the American music critic Arthur M. Abell (1868–1958) compiled his notes and memories of conversations he had with well-known composers of his time. …
During Abell’s long stay in Europe, he had several opportunities to talk to Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini, Engelbert Humperdinck, Max Bruch and Edvard Grieg about the sources of inspiration that led to the creation of their masterpieces and about the spiritual and psychological experiences of composing. The result is a fascinating homage to creative inspiration. The personal insights of the composers he interviewed and the creative processes of their work are unique in the history of music.
The quotations and exerpts which follow are from Abell’s conversations with Richard Strauss and Johannes Brahms.*
Strauss discusses the source of his inspiration
“Composing is a procedure that is not so readily explained,” Strauss replied. “When the inspiration comes, it is something of so subtle, tenuous, will-o-the wisp-like nature that it almost defies definition. When in my most inspired moods, I have definite compelling visions, involving a higher selfhood. I feel at such moments, that I am tapping the source of Infinite and Eternal energy from which you and I and all things proceed. Religion calls it God.” …
During one of their many walks in the field behind the old Weimar windmill, the topic of inspiration came up again.
Strauss: “Thoughts often come to me while I’m walking here. I write them down immediately, because my sketchbook is always with me. It is extremely important to record the thoughts immediately so that they don’t evaporate. I then often refer to these notes, which puts me in the same frame of mind that gave birth to the ideas; this is how they develop and expand. I firmly believe in the germination of the idea.”
Abell: “And how does inspiration happen? How does the process work? Are you aware of the fact that it is an emanation from a higher source?”
Strauss: “Yes, definitely. I know that the ability to receive such ideas into my consciousness is a divine gift. It is a mission from God, a task entrusted to me, and I feel that it is my highest duty to make the best of it.”
Abell went on to ask whether the external environment also influences his work.
“Definitely”, Strauss replied. “In spring, especially in May, when the apple trees are in blossom, the sun is shining and the birds are singing, I’m at my most productive; but the ideas come at any time and in almost any situation.” …
In tune with the Infinite — Johannes Brahms
Arthur Abell’s conversation with Johannes Brahms took place in Brahms’ workroom in Vienna, Austria in the late autumn of 1896 and had been arranged by Brahms’ best friend, the famous violinist, Joseph Joachim. A bilingual stenographer provided by the American embassy in Vienna recorded the three-hour conversation. …
‘Dr Brahms,’ I queried, ‘how do you contact Omnipotence? Most people find Him very aloof.’
“That’s the great question,” Brahms replied. “It cannot be done merely by willpower working through the conscious mind, which is an evolutionary product of the physical realm and perishes with the body. It can only be accomplished by the soul-powers within – the real ego that survives bodily death […].
“To realize that we are one with the Creator, as Beethoven did, is a wonderful and awe-inspiring experience. Very few human beings ever come into that realization and that is why there are so few great composers or creative geniuses in any line of human endeavor. I always contemplate all this before commencing to compose.”
Brahms and invoking the Muse
“When I feel the urge, I begin by appealing directly to my Maker and I first ask Him the three most important questions pertaining to our life in this world — whence, wherefore, whither?
“I immediately feel vibrations that thrill my whole being. These are the Spirit illuminating the soulpower within, and in this exalted state, I see clearly what is obscure in my ordinary moods; then I feel capable of drawing inspiration from above, as Beethoven did. Above all, I realize at such moments the tremendous significance of Jesus’ supreme revelation, ‘I and my Father are one’. Those vibrations assume the forms of distinct mental images, after I have formulated my desire and resolve in regard to what I want — namely, to be inspired so that I can compose something that will uplift and benefit humanity — something of permanent value.
“‘Straightaway, the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind’s eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies and orchestration. Measure by measure, the finished product is revealed to me […].”
“Spirit is the light of the soul,” Brahms continued. “Spirit is universal. Spirit is the creative energy of the Cosmos. The soul of man is not conscious of its powers until it is enlightened by Spirit. Therefore, to evolve and grow, man must learn how to use and develop his own soul forces. All great creative geniuses do this, although some of them do not seem to be as conscious of the process as others.
“… When I enter that dream-like state, I am in a trance-like condition — hovering between being asleep and awake; I am still conscious but right on the border of losing consciousness. And it is at such moments that inspired ideas come. All true inspiration emanates from God, and He can reveal Himself to us only through that spark of divinity within — through what modern psychologists call the subconscious mind.’” …
(Source: Arthur M. Abell, Talks with Great Composers)
* Quotations and excerpts reproduced with the kind permission of the publishers Artha Verlag, artha.de.
Called by Brazilian President Lula “one of the most important humanists of our time”, the former President of Uruguay, José Mujica, died on 13 May 2025, just before his 90th birthday.
Known as El Pepe by Uruguayans, Mujica gained notoriety throughout the world by living his principles and eschewing the trappings of power. Donating 90 percent of his salary as President to charities, he refused to live in the presidential palace, remaining on his wife’s small flower farm on the outskirts of Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo. When not riding a bicycle to work, he drove an iconic decades-old Volkswagen Beetle and wore only plain clothes to public events. On his simple lifestyle, and being referred to as “the world’s poorest president”, he stated: “All I do is live like the majority of my people, not the minority. I’m living a normal life and Italian, Spanish leaders should also live as their people do. They shouldn’t be aspiring to or copying a rich minority.”
Raised on a farm, his father died when he was only four. As a young adult in the mid 1960s, he participated in the National Party of Uruguay as its General Secretary. He later helped to form a new left-wing party aligned with the Socialists, the Union Popular, which was decisively defeated in the 1962 election. A few years later, believing that only revolutionary change could solve Uruguay’s social and economic problems, he became a follower of Che Guevera, the Cuban guerilla leader, and joined the newly formed MLN-Tupamaros movement, a far left, armed political group inspired by the Cuban Revolution. He participated in armed raids and the takeover of a town, Pando, in 1969, as the leader of an assault squad. In 1970, while resisting arrest at a Montevideo bar, he injured two policemen and was shot six times, nearly losing his life, but was saved by a hospital surgeon. Captured by the authorities four times, after multiple escapes, he spent 13 years in prison, often in harsh conditions and isolation, more than two years of which was spent confined to the bottom of an emptied horse-watering trough. During this time, he experienced serious mental health issues, including hallucinations. Mujica said that this period firmly shaped his outlook on life.
He was finally freed in 1985 under an amnesty law that covered political and related military crimes.
Several years after he left prison, Mujica, with many of his fellow Tupamaros, joined other left-wing organizations to create the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP) — a political party that saw him elected a Deputy in the 1994 general elections and, in 1999, a Senator. The party became a top political force and, in 2005, Mujica was designated Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries. That same year, he married his longtime partner, also a Tupamaro, Lucia Topolansky.
After winning the Uruguayan presidency in November 2009, he called for unity in his first speech as President-elect, acknowledging his political opponents, stating that there would be “Ni vencidos, ni vencedores” — no winners or losers. He added: “It is a mistake to think that power comes from above, when it comes from within the hearts of the masses.(…) It has taken me a lifetime to learn this.”
As President from 2010 to 2015, Mujica promoted progressive policies and major social reforms, including legalizing abortion and gay marriage. In an effort to fight drug-related crimes, he made Uruguay the first country in the world to fully legalize the recreational use of cannabis. While he held office, Uruguay’s poverty rate was nearly halved and its minimum wage nearly doubled.
An outspoken critic of consumer culture, perhaps Mujica’s most lasting legacy was his public demonstration of a principled and humane service-oriented life. Noting the dangers of commercialism, he asked us to rethink our own priorities: “The culture in which we are embedded, in which we are surrounded, is functional only for the multiplication of individual profit. And that culture is much stronger than armies and military power and everything else, because that culture is determining the permanent relationships of millions of ordinary people all over the world. And that is much stronger than the atomic bomb! So, to change a system without facing the problem of a change in culture is useless. We must build a new system and, in parallel, a new culture, a new ethic…”
(Sources: jacobin.com; dw.com; bbc.com; wikipedia; The Guardian)
