Libercharity interviews chief Libercharitiest Charlie Falconer about what the Valentine's Day launch of Libercharity.com means - from the 'dark side of the moon' to Monet and more...
Who’s Charlie?
Not to be mistaken with Hebdo or The Chocolate Factory. It’s my middle name and the name of my Grandfather, which makes it precious to me. Almost every week day I walk through Smithfield market, where he used to pick up the meat for his chain of butcher shops across north London. He died from a heart complication. Like his heart beat him to death. I never got to see him. I feel his influence in my heart all the time, and I so I started using his name among friends about ten years ago. This is a Charlie project, for sure.
But you’re also Colin, a Director at the ? Foyer Federation
Sometimes...
As in, why not both? At least as Charlie I don’t get mistaken with novelist Colin Falconer. He writes 'stories of romance and epic adventure', which come to think of it isn't a bad comparison.
Is Libercharity Foyer Federation?
The Foyer Federation is developing a movement for 'Advantaged Thinking', something I did a lot of work on to help initiate. It’s a brilliant organisation and I'm proud of what I contribute to it. But this is different. Libercharity is a philosophy that seeks to be free of everything, even myself. Of course it has associations with Foyer Federation through my involvement in both, but it’s very much a singular vision and campaign. Perhaps it’s the dark side of my Foyer Federation moon. Or the bit that got away from Advantaged Thinking.
So this isn’t a counter organisation or charity?
That would suggest far too much planning. Libercharity is not an organisation or charity in the normal sense of either word. It’s a philosophy to change how organisations and individuals do things. Which means it’s potentially counter to everything as much as it’s also the ultimate collaborator for everyone. I have a lot of stuff to say about organisations and charities. Libercharity will certainly be a platform for some of those ideas. But the key is not to become the problem I believe organisational structures naturally create.
Why the name Libercharity?
I wanted a name that contained within it the idea of a charity that is free in a none-material sense, as well as the idea that charity is able to free itself from its current thinking and doing. And I wanted it to be about liberty as an important foundation of civilization that’s being eroded away around us without enough debate. So I tried to connect both together, while playing on the meaning of charity as love, which after all is the ultimate liberator. I’ve always liked Rainer Fassbinder’s description of himself as a romantic anarchist, and I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to get people to understand the importance of Thomas Paine’s ideas on revolution for rights, so I guess they all have an input to the name. Plus, if you read the plaque inside the Statue of Liberty, you begin to wonder if it's time for a 'New Colossus' of our own.
How long have you been working on the tools and concepts behind Libercharity?
Claude Monet did this painting of Le Harvre docks – Impression, Sunrise – which was hugely influential on the Impressionist movement in the 1870s. It probably only took him 10 minutes to paint, but it relied on years of experience of different cultures and techniques to make those ten minutes capture the inspiration. I’ve always worked by a similar approach. When I write, it’s quick, intense, and it comes from a lot of germination in my heart and head that hasn’t been written down. I actively dream before I write. So I haven’t been working on this very long at all, externally. It’s a recent idea that followed on from recovering after the Adventures in Advantaged Thinking performance last summer. It's important to stress that Libercharity celebrates doing things through the energy that comes via interacting with others – so the real work is actually still to come. The innovations described are brilliant outlines for spanners that need interesting nuts to take shape around. But the spanners certainly exist, and they get succulently shinier each day.
What are you going to write about on this blog?
I hope to be interviewing people far more interesting than myself. I’ll also be writing about and signposting to everything that fits inside the Libercharity vision. I’m more into looking at different ways of doing than just pointing out the things that currently don’t work around us. The evidence base always ends up being a trap. Libercharity only works in and through real experience – that’s the important thing I want to capture in the words.
Why a Valentine launch?
Libercharity is about reclaiming the love in things we seem to have lost sight of. Valentine’s day feels a bit in need of that when you see how it’s been commodified. Which arguably makes it the perfect symbol for what has happened within the charity sector too. There’s a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince which says: “You’re responsible for your rose”. I think we all need to be more responsible for love in our lives. Starting with charity on Valentine’s day. But I don’t expect many people are waiting for my chocolates. I think of it as the launch of a launch for many launches. Maybe more a bouquet of ripening seeds than flowers waiting to die in a week…
Final question – are you the Angel of Florence?
I don't have wings and I can't speak Italian. Or in other words, you can wait for 2016. Meanwhile, Libercharity is alive and kicking - maybe, one day, in all of us… (www.libercharity.com)
Not to be mistaken with Hebdo or The Chocolate Factory. It’s my middle name and the name of my Grandfather, which makes it precious to me. Almost every week day I walk through Smithfield market, where he used to pick up the meat for his chain of butcher shops across north London. He died from a heart complication. Like his heart beat him to death. I never got to see him. I feel his influence in my heart all the time, and I so I started using his name among friends about ten years ago. This is a Charlie project, for sure.
But you’re also Colin, a Director at the ? Foyer Federation
Sometimes...
As in, why not both? At least as Charlie I don’t get mistaken with novelist Colin Falconer. He writes 'stories of romance and epic adventure', which come to think of it isn't a bad comparison.
Is Libercharity Foyer Federation?
The Foyer Federation is developing a movement for 'Advantaged Thinking', something I did a lot of work on to help initiate. It’s a brilliant organisation and I'm proud of what I contribute to it. But this is different. Libercharity is a philosophy that seeks to be free of everything, even myself. Of course it has associations with Foyer Federation through my involvement in both, but it’s very much a singular vision and campaign. Perhaps it’s the dark side of my Foyer Federation moon. Or the bit that got away from Advantaged Thinking.
So this isn’t a counter organisation or charity?
That would suggest far too much planning. Libercharity is not an organisation or charity in the normal sense of either word. It’s a philosophy to change how organisations and individuals do things. Which means it’s potentially counter to everything as much as it’s also the ultimate collaborator for everyone. I have a lot of stuff to say about organisations and charities. Libercharity will certainly be a platform for some of those ideas. But the key is not to become the problem I believe organisational structures naturally create.
Why the name Libercharity?
I wanted a name that contained within it the idea of a charity that is free in a none-material sense, as well as the idea that charity is able to free itself from its current thinking and doing. And I wanted it to be about liberty as an important foundation of civilization that’s being eroded away around us without enough debate. So I tried to connect both together, while playing on the meaning of charity as love, which after all is the ultimate liberator. I’ve always liked Rainer Fassbinder’s description of himself as a romantic anarchist, and I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to get people to understand the importance of Thomas Paine’s ideas on revolution for rights, so I guess they all have an input to the name. Plus, if you read the plaque inside the Statue of Liberty, you begin to wonder if it's time for a 'New Colossus' of our own.
How long have you been working on the tools and concepts behind Libercharity?
Claude Monet did this painting of Le Harvre docks – Impression, Sunrise – which was hugely influential on the Impressionist movement in the 1870s. It probably only took him 10 minutes to paint, but it relied on years of experience of different cultures and techniques to make those ten minutes capture the inspiration. I’ve always worked by a similar approach. When I write, it’s quick, intense, and it comes from a lot of germination in my heart and head that hasn’t been written down. I actively dream before I write. So I haven’t been working on this very long at all, externally. It’s a recent idea that followed on from recovering after the Adventures in Advantaged Thinking performance last summer. It's important to stress that Libercharity celebrates doing things through the energy that comes via interacting with others – so the real work is actually still to come. The innovations described are brilliant outlines for spanners that need interesting nuts to take shape around. But the spanners certainly exist, and they get succulently shinier each day.
What are you going to write about on this blog?
I hope to be interviewing people far more interesting than myself. I’ll also be writing about and signposting to everything that fits inside the Libercharity vision. I’m more into looking at different ways of doing than just pointing out the things that currently don’t work around us. The evidence base always ends up being a trap. Libercharity only works in and through real experience – that’s the important thing I want to capture in the words.
Why a Valentine launch?
Libercharity is about reclaiming the love in things we seem to have lost sight of. Valentine’s day feels a bit in need of that when you see how it’s been commodified. Which arguably makes it the perfect symbol for what has happened within the charity sector too. There’s a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince which says: “You’re responsible for your rose”. I think we all need to be more responsible for love in our lives. Starting with charity on Valentine’s day. But I don’t expect many people are waiting for my chocolates. I think of it as the launch of a launch for many launches. Maybe more a bouquet of ripening seeds than flowers waiting to die in a week…
Final question – are you the Angel of Florence?
I don't have wings and I can't speak Italian. Or in other words, you can wait for 2016. Meanwhile, Libercharity is alive and kicking - maybe, one day, in all of us… (www.libercharity.com)