The #MeToo movement has taken the world by storm. Because though we may mock it, anything USA does, the world seems to want to copy it.
So as predicted, it picked up pace and quickly went out of control, following the viral interviews of actress Tanushree Dutta.
And as also predicted, now it has snowballed into a holy mess of vindictive, petty women who are airing personal grievances, political agendas and dead careers in the raging fire.
I am filled with a whole host of reactions. But when I let the muddle headedness of it settle down, I realize I still find myself close to a fundamental truth. And that is, that mass movements are just never ever true.
There is no room for truth in a mob. There is use for a wave of sentiment. And #MeToo is quickly descending to appalling levels of Misandry. It has become a battle of the sexes, instead of being about Truth and correctness.
Infact I am so angry, I find it hard to write because the rush of feelings muddles my clarity of thought. But I must give it a try. Let me break it down into some objections I have:
1. Why is it Legitimate to say, a woman can claim anything 10,20, 30 years after the fact. How is it logical. ethical. or justified?
2. If inspite of money, freedom and education, it takes you 30 years to wake up to injustice, then what can a society ever do, to enable you to be honest and stand up for your rights?
3. Your claims have no proof, but must be believed, because you are a woman and why would you claim victimhood?
REALLY? I was shocked to see my favorite Sam Harris, even fall prey to this faulty logic! He conducts talk after talk, gently but persistently showing to people the flaws in their logic, yet fails to see the one in his own! Are we all then this blindsided to our follies. Is this an inescapable human folly?
Ok, how can a society function, where inspite of irrefutable proof in science, social facts, police records etc, it is established that People lie, regardless of Gender, if you turn around and say you are a 'rationalist' who considers 'facts as sacred' BUT then assert, that women must be believed if they make a claim after many years, with no hope of ever being able to verify it?
NOW, yes, in the realms of possibility it is possible, that a person can make a truthful claim at any point in life, after the fact, because they are truthful people. It is a possibility. BUT as a listener, you are not abdicated of the moral responsibility of verifying the truth or assertion of truth. You may FEEL it is true. HOW do you Know? How can you substitute Feeling for knowledge and call yourself rational?
A woman has a right, like a man to be able to speak fearlessly. She ought to be heard too. But why must she be believed without question, and why would questioning be made to appear like evil!?
If God can be questioned, why not a Woman's claims? In order to appear 'sensitive' you will sacrifice truth, or seeking truth as the higher good?
I am a woman. Do not tell me, that I am "empowered" by being able to tell a lie, and getting away with it in broad daylight and you are doing something heroic by allowing me to get away with Hyperbole, embellishments and imaginary narratives mixed with half truths. I DO NOT NEED to be held to such a low and corrupt standard.
I am not ever going to be the type of feminist who will say "It's ok if a few men are accused wrongly and we gloss over the lies a bit. It is for the larger good. And Men ought to suffer for eons of Misogyny".
Sorry, when you hurt your toe, chopping off your hair wont help. Two wrongs don't make a right. And I am so baffled at Sam Harris. How is he not getting it!?
