Pride and Prejudice in Our Lives

Many moons ago, in my senior year at high school, the English Literature class syllabus entailed reading/studying Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

As it happens, even though at that time I was gravitating towards and ended up choosing a natural sciences education and career, I continued over the years to retain my memories and admiration of the power of literature and it’s influence in formulating and polishing my thoughts with “Pride” and perhaps a little “Prejudice” too!!

Jane Austen’s theme was one that laid out the two aspects in the title of her novel over many pages of twists and turns in the lives of the Bennet family and, particularly that of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet.

In the novel, much like what happens in true life for you and me, the travails from the ridiculous to the sublime and vice versa are encountered at different chapters of the book in very much the same way as what we experience over the span or chapters of our lives!

In our formative years, as we transition from childhood to maturity, we are influenced by many expressed thoughts, mental and physical postures and behavior of those whom we observe amongst our family, teachers and friends. That influence may morph into bias or prejudice that often times is not that easy to break out of as we grow older.

The extent by which the acquired bias and prejudice is tempered will vary amongst individuals including between siblings depending on the different shades of personal experience, environment and circumstances that each is exposed to.

Prejudices and/or tainting of thoughts and ideals may spread like an epidemic and, without the necessary antidote, namely education, may well extend over national, religious, gender, class, rank, etc..... aspects of any society.

Needless to say, ill-founded pride and the presence or absence of envy, ambition, aspiration, bigotry, passion and jealousy, amongst other things, are important ingredients in the recipe that determines anyone’s personality. Sweet, tasteless or sour personalities are thus shaped depending on the doses and/or combinations of those ingredients!

Hani Badawi
December 29, 2017

Balancing Our Lives

If we examine many aspects of life we will find that a balanced approach is necessary.

In all fields of science one must use checks and balances for verifying and proving theories.

In diverse fields of finance checks and balances are used for balancing budgets.

In medicine, a balanced diet is recommended for leading a healthy life.

All religions call for a balance between wordly and worship/divine matters.

A successful school curriculum relies on a balance between, humanities, social science and natural science subjects.

And there are many more examples of how balancing things in our lives is important.

On the other hand, there are many examples of unbalanced behavior that we observe on a daily basis by politicians and, from time to time, by world leaders! For that, we may fine-tune our thoughts to strike a balance in our lives by adopting a path for reform via casting our votes or joining an opposition campaign. We may also, instead, choose to tune out the cacophony of the crazy ideas that we hear via the media!

Temptation often steers us away from an otherwise balanced state of affairs, however, corrective action is possible if one reacts in time before the balance tips over one way or the other!

Hani Badawi
December 8, 2017

Humans and Electric Circuits - Are they Analogous?

In this short essay (composed 6 years ago) I attempt, relying on my lifelong engineering and research career, to draw some analogies between a few human traits and behaviors to the components and behavior of electric circuits!

So, should you have no interest in delving further into my world of science, you can skip reading what follows!

We are all wired up in a very similar way as a "passive" electric circuit. The complexity of any given human circuit is directly related to many factors that constitute our individual lives. However, unlike electric circuits, no two humans are wired in exactly the same way.

If you agree so far, continue to the next paragraph. If I lost you, please feel free to skip the rest of this analysis.

OK, you are still reading, so you must be still interested! Now, let me draw the following analogies and see if you agree (or disagree):

Some circuits are more resistive in nature. The resistive human nature could be, in one extreme, indicative of close-minded individuals who resist change, or, on the other extreme, individuals that resist indoctrination by the society or other external sources.

Some circuits are more reactive (either inductive or capacitive). They remind me of different degrees of emotional intelligence. If inductive, some will induce ideas from others and some will induce ideas to others. If capacitive, some would charge up others and some will be charged up by others. If the capacitor is leaky then it will not hold the charge and that reminds of people who cannot hold a secret and some are more leaky than others!

The simple circuits comprising the above 3 "passive" elements, namely: resistors, inductors and capacitors is the simplest form of circuit. This type of circuit will also consist of a battery or a power source (for which the human equivalent is the brain) and a switch for turning the current on or off (does that remind you of the state of consciousness - awake or asleep?).

If perchance a short circuit occurs, then this would herald the demise of a circuit. Doesn't that remind you of what happens at the end of a life!

On a happier note, passive circuits are not the only circuits that have advanced our technology of today. There happens to be a host of "active" elements known as diodes and transistors and they are forever evolving, very much in the same way as the growth of our knowledge in our lifetime and also the evolution of our future generations. For these "active" elements analogies one must remember to cherish and nurture their growth.

A final thought: Keep your batteries charged and don't let anyone rewire you!

Hani Badawi
December 6, 2011

Perspectives and Appreciation Note

In all my notes/blogs I only aim to provide a perspective of my thoughts in a similar way as what an artist would in rendering her/his feelings using the material and subjects of their choice.

I do not claim or profess to be an expert at what I write. I only reflect what’s transpiring at the moment that I conceive a thought or an idea and lay it open for comments, criticism or support, all of which truly fuel my mental engine to keep it running!

Needless to say, in addition to appreciating your comments, I note that many of your comments reflect a deeper understanding of some of my perspectives and prompt me to delve deeper into facts about the subject matter or my inner thoughts.

Your perspectives on my perspectives are important and highly appreciated!

Hani Badawi
December 2, 2017

Do We Grow Up or Grow Old? A Perspective

I’m sure that at some time or another you heard people say: grow up, act your age or stop being childish!

What does that mean?

I guess, like many things in life, the answer to that question is: It depends!

Depending on life circumstances, individuals may have been conditioned and/or have chosen to lead a life of limited resources. By that I mean that they may have had external factors dictating behavioral patterns on them but, on the other hand, they could also have chosen to lead a life where human interactions were minimal or avoided for some reason or another.

Whatever the reasons are, onlookers who have led a gregarious and socially active life will look upon the limited resources group as dull, uninteresting or culturally inept. They may even label them as infantile or childish.

Conversely, the limited resources group may hold a similar view of the socially active group and apply similar labels to them like “not acting their age”, etc.

The common denominator, nevertheless, is that the two groups (and other various groups not addressed here) continue to grow older.

So growing old is inevitable. Determination of whether growing up or acting one’s age, however, will always be in the eye of the beholder!

Hani Badawi
December 1, 2017