Tony Blair only got his own mobile phone after his 10-year tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in 2007. That means he missed out on much of the whole cellular phone revolution, which saw the transformation of clunky Motorola bricks that could only be used inside the car into a genuine weapon of mass distraction and disruption. He probably didn’t see how spelling has evolved into economic and compact units of only consonants; he wasn’t witness to the development of an entirely new visual and highly sensitive language, the hieroglyphics of emoticons (if your crush doesn’t text back with a smiley face, he’s just not that into you), and he most likely wasn’t paying attention to the fact that, although you can now watch movies on your phone, why would you want to? Blair may have brokered peace with Northern Ireland, but at least I saw how cell phone users text-forwarded their way to EDSA, mobilizing the masses through messages into ousting a corrupt leader.
To his credit, Blair has figured out how the whole texting thing works since standing down, but some of the things he’s learned from leadership I could say I’ve picked up along the way just doing my own thing, keeping my ear to the ground and my nose to the grindstone. At the talk he gave at Sofitel on Monday, he outlined the lessons he learned from being PM. First, in order to understand the world, you have to analyze it as it is, not as how you think it should be. Common sense, one should think, and he went on to describe this modern world as interconnected and interdependent as never before, and cited the economic crisis as something contagious and viral, which it is, because the world’s financial networks are just one big network and when recession-chic Americans decide to stop buying something like plastic salad shooters, then entire factories close down in China.
I have long believed that the world was connected — that everything is everything — and that the technologies of communication and flows of information that have emerged in the past decades only strengthen these connections and just make everything faster, yet at the same time separate things from themselves and make them more abstract (no matter how many times I Wikipedia it, I will never understand what derivatives are and how something that doesn’t really exist can cause a meltdown). Yet the world is virtual before it is real — just check out Facebook relationship status changes and how many times they’ve preempted the actual relationship and caused a ruckus in the gossip community. We are, most of the time, over-connected.
Second, Blair talked about change and how countries, companies and people have to change themselves to get with the times, or rather to affect change. He told the story of how he was in the hospital and about to undergo an operation. The anesthesiologist came to him with a huge needle, leaned over and said, “Mr. Blair, I don’t agree with your health reforms.” Blair, ever the subtly witty diplomat, retorted meekly, “You’ve got a point.” Change seems to be the buzzword of 2008-‘09, thanks to Obamamania and all the ad campaigns for soft drinks and fast food that thereafter cashed in on the hope frenzy. However, as Tony expressed, “We are in a state of perpetual revolution.” I thumbs-up this statement because this is something we should realize and accept as countries, companies, and as people. Government will replace government, leader will unseat leader, and new ways of doing and thinking will overthrow the old. Is change really coming? Yes, global warming is already dramatically affecting the planet. Adapt or die.
Third and fourth (I am combining here), the former Mick Jagger wannabe said, “Leaders stand up, they do not stand back. And it is forgivable to fail; it is unforgivable not to try.” Blair claimed he never thought of going into politics or becoming a leader in his youth, when he was in an inevitably unpromising rock band called Ugly Rumours. But something must have compelled him to stand up, and try to change things as time went by. He is widely reviled as Bush’s lapdog for supporting the Iraq war, but his reasons for doing so were based on his faith, and thus Christianity’s core values, and he still stands by that difficult decision. He officially converted to Roman Catholicism in 2007, only after his premiership ended, because it was a personal and private choice.
Now, as Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, he believes the conflict is rooted in the problems of old-time religion (read: Islamic fundamentalism) and intends to use his charm offensive in tandem with diplomatic tactics in interfaith relations to guide the peace process. “To understand the modern world one must understand the world of faith,” he said. For his son Leo, who turns nine this year, he wishes a world in which he himself “has strong faith but understands, feels respect for and has a sense of human connection with those of different faiths.” Blair started his Faith Foundation because he reckons “the 21st century needs faith to survive and progress in a good way, but that we not have faith in that role unless the different faiths in the world learn to live with each other in mutual respect and harmony.” An impossible goal perhaps, so we’ll forgive him if he fails. At the center of it all, amongst the whirlwinds of globalization, millennial shifts in power, extreme unpredictability and constant, chaotic flux, Blair doesn’t just have faith, he has faith in faith. Now that’s quite revolutionary.