The "Faux Program"
How to get "onto the agenda" if you’re shut out
To see the example "faux program," click the link in the top heading.
We have all obtained fliers and passed them out to crowds or at meetings to promote our good causes. Here is a way to overcome the reluctance of some participants to accept from your hand--much less read--a bit of information that might challenge them to think, one that is not a candy-coated production of the official sponsors: include the word PROGRAM on the front face of a flier.
Even in the age of the cell phone, one of the most powerful ways to get information to people is to put an 8.5 X 11-inch sheet of paper, filled on both sides with text and images, into their hands. Ben Franklin and Edward R. Tufte advise us to put this tool to work: the pamphlet–a.k.a. the leaflet, the info sheet, the flier.
If you are attending a public or private event where the ongoing genocide in Palestine ought to be mentioned, but will not be, then you might consider this variation on the flier: You can compose a “faux program,” the French word for “fake” being “faux,” pronounced like “foe.”
Begin by studying the publicity for the upcoming event, and copy some of the phrases onto face 1 of your flier, along with the word PROGRAM in big letters. Be sure to also include this phrase, in very tiny type: “This flier is not a publication of ____________” [insert the name of whoever is actually sponsoring the event]. That protects you from accusations of fraud and copyright infringement.
Second gather up the information that you wish people would pay attention to, and fit it onto faces 2,3, and 4 of the flier in a bi-fold format. See above illustrations. There’s not much page space. Say it concisely. Provide short URL links.
Third, when you lay out the flier, choose the “landscape” option, and select “two columns” to create the correct frame for a bifold pamphlet. Save the final version as a PDF, for consistent appearance on the page when it’s printed.
Fourth, when you begin to print this flier, just run one (1) copy initially as a test. Check that the printout is two-sided AND that the interior faces of the folded flier (face 2 and 3) are both right-side up (when compared with faces 1 and 4).
Finally, with a stack of your faux programs happily under your arm, stand on the public sidewalk outside the event and hand it to folks who are arriving. Another nonviolent-protest-volunteer can perhaps enter the event and place the program in strategic spots. For example, if there are booths or tables with information, do a “flier exchange”: take one of their fliers and give them one of yours.
We used this method with good results at the Interfaith Unity Walk 2024 in Washington, DC, A gathering of perhaps 250 people walked from temple to church to mosque to shrine (etc.) all along Massachusetts Avenue, “to advance understanding and cooperation across diverse faith traditions and cultures in our nation’s capital for the betterment of all.” Good cause. Lovely people. Beautiful autumn day.
I smiled and said, “Here is a Complimentary Program. No, it’s not the same as the one you already have. It mentions some people who might like to be part of activities like this, but are not here today. Thank you for taking it. Please let me know if you have any questions.”
We had some good conversations as we walked or enjoyed a delicious meal provided by the Sikhs. Over the course of two hours, we saw the exteriors and the interior spaces of eight beautiful buildings. The US/Israel ongoing destruction of churches and mosques in Gaza, however, was never mentioned from any lectern. In the closing ceremony, an imam prayed that we will never see “another 9-11 in America. Peace, peace, peace,” he said. He seemed worried for his congregants, and for everyone, in the coming months and years. So was I.
I’m grateful to the mentors who demonstrated this nonviolent method of creating a faux program and offering it to an audience. The action might be seen as “disruptive” by some critics, but it is hardly so. Yes, we intend it to be a little bit confusing; it causes the reader to stop and use their brain to evaluate. What is this thing that I am reading? What is it telling me? Does this piece of paper nudge me, shock me, whisper to me, insult me, light compassion within me?
-Steven Sellers Lapham
