"What If We're All Partially Right?"
An essay by Stephanie Lepp, Founder of Faces of X
My first experience with political activism was completely alienating.
I was a freshman in college, and I joined the Redwood Action Team at Stanford (RATS) for a city council meeting in Mendocino – a coastal town north of San Francisco. We were there to protest the logging of the Northern California redwoods.
At the time, an environmental activist named Julia Butterfly Hill was living in one of those redwoods. We called her on a cellphone, and she gave us a pep talk, on speaker, from her redwood tree.
It was all very exciting, but I noticed something strange.
I noticed that the people we were protesting against looked like very humble people. They were loggers with their families, and they looked like migrant workers. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be on the opposite side from those people. I want to be on the same side as the trees and the people. The way these lines are drawn doesn’t make sense to me.
That was the end of my involvement with RATS, and, for a while, with politics.
That was also the beginning of my fascination with integrating different perspectives – which recently led me to create Faces of X.
Faces of X is a series of short videos that integrate different perspectives on divisive social issues. Like this issue on the Power of the Pluriverse, Faces of X embodies the idea that multiple worlds are not only possible but already exist, and that embracing this multiplicity can fortify our movements for healing, justice, and liberation. "Inspired by the pluriverse's ability to support the co-existence of multiple worlds, Faces of X explores how different perspectives can be integrated into a more comprehensive synthesis.
The following essay draws on my creative journey with Faces of X to explore the power of pluriversality and integration.
. . .
In America today, we can hardly interact with different perspectives, let alone integrate them. Our viewpoint diversity has become a weakness rather than a strength.
The internet often gives us binary choices: pro-vax or anti-vax. Pro-choice or pro-life. Woke or anti-woke. Choosing one or the other leaves insights off the table. Vaccines shouldn’t be taken always, nor should they be taken never, so the question isn’t “pro-vax or anti-vax?” but “under what circumstances should vaccines be taken?” With respect to abortion, most Americans don’t identify with purely “pro-choice” or “pro-life,” and instead favor abortion rights with limits. Similarly, with respect to “wokeness,” the oppressor-oppressed frame is critical and overdue, but not always the most relevant.
In response to binary thinking, there can be a reflexive both-sides-ism, which presents different perspectives as equally relevant or valuable regardless of the evidence or ethical considerations. American media should be more balanced, but not in a way that creates false equivalence or obscures truth. The best solutions are not always halfway between extremes….
. . .
Faces of X is a series of short videos that seeks to integrate different perspectives on divisive social issues like capitalism, gender, and race. First, each video “steel-mans” different perspectives on the issue. (Steel-manning articulates the strongest version of a perspective as opposed to straw-manning, which articulates the weakest.) Then, in the triad of thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis, each video attempts to integrate those arguments into a synthesis. Thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis are represented as three different characters, played by the same person.
Synthesis goes beyond both-sides-ism because it engages with different perspectives without assuming they’re equal. Eventually, a synthesis becomes a new thesis in our evolving understanding of reality.
STEPHANIE LEPP is an award-winning producer and storyteller. She's the former Executive Producer at the Center for Humane Technology, the organization at the heart of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. She now leads Synthesis Media, an independent production studio devoted to accelerating cultural evolution. Stephanie’s work has been supported by institutions like the Sundance Institute and Mozilla Foundation, and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. Her latest project is Faces of X—a series of short videos that integrate different perspectives on culture war issues. Her next project is The Anti-Debate—a new format for debate that helps participants co-create a more comprehensive view of the topic of debate. Stay in touch with Stephanie on X: @stephlepp