An infected branch and the tree that needs to survive

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The floodgate of  #MeToo cases has me thinking deeply. While I too have a few #MeToo moments, I don't want to share them right now. They are not as serious as the ones that I'm hearing, and I don't want to trivialise the movement by adding to frivolous stories. May be I will try and explain one of the incidents someday - but I don't even remember the name of the person. The question that's haunting me now is, how to treat these cases in a fair and just manner? How to do course-correction?
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A tree has an infected branch. What do you do? Do you not eat fruits from the unaffected branches, which are perfectly fine? The infected branch might have contributed to those fruits, but does that make the fruit inedible?
What's the solution? Shall we disown the tree and its fruits totally? Shall we just cut off the branch and save the tree from infection? Or, shall we check for symptoms and cure the infection so that the branch becomes healthy?
The last option is generally never thought of - because it is usually a messy process and it takes a lot to do it. The branch will never be seen in a new light - a reformed, rejuvenated branch is out of our imagination.
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A work of art is bigger than sum of its parts - a cinema is greater than an individual actor, director or a jerk who takes his position of power for granted. A newspaper's journalism is much bigger than one person who abused the power - it is a collective outcome of years of hard work by many committed folks.
A person's body of work is much greater than his dark moments in which he takes his position for granted and feels entitled to do horrible things. The work they produce doesn't get reduced in its quality even when the producer of that work is rotten in another compartment.
It looks like a throwing-the-baby-alongwith-bathwater moment, with the Phantom Films getting dismantled and many people discrediting the work done by The Wire. But is there hope?
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A workable solution in workplaces is to have a proper code of conduct, personally, professionally and socially, and to have a few boundaries that should not be crossed. A lot of issues get solved/avoided with these. Next thing in workplaces is to have a complaints mechanism in place, to address the cases of people crossing the agreed boundaries.
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There's no doubt that women refusing accept the macho tendency of entitlement is good for the society as a whole - the next generation will be sensitised towards it from the very beginning and we can hope for better society and workplaces.
And, here's the silver lining: All men do not abuse women (more like, all people do not abuse others) Why? What are they made up of - those who don't abuse others, those who value their positions and are sensible towards others? What needs to be changed in society and in personal lives to produce more of them - sensible men and women? Can we move towards corrective action as a society, while the actions and inaction of the past cannot be undone?
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But what of the rotten and misogynistic system we have now? What of the men and women in those family WhatsApp groups who make fun of the movement as if they never underwent any harassment? Won't they inculcate the same values among their kids, who might continue to act entitled when they can? What do we do with it? We see the symptoms of the rot already - how do we stop the branch from getting infected, and infecting the entire tree?
 #MeToo

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