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Mission Statement

alias eliot hopes to:

  • think grand without being gradiose (I apologize in advance for any escaped hot air)
  • mix new and known voices (i.e. yours and einstein's) for a 360 degree view of "life, the universe, and everything"
  • trace opposites, differences and divergences back to their source
  • merge theory and practice
  • gather and condense the most exciting ideas and make you excited about them too
  • facilitate a public conversation with direct impact on public policy
  • celebrate the journey without losing sight of our (collective) destination

sounds like a lot, I know, but basically, alias eliot simply wants to encourage the practice of "active empathy", a dynamic connectivity that takes us deep down and far out.

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So who is Eliot?

The obstetrician looked vaguely triumphant.  "Pretty sure it's a boy," he told my mom, pressing the metal stethoscope at odd angles around her belly.  She'd been preparing for this.  What did it matter if she had to buy drill bits instead of doll houses.  It was a baby.  Her baby.  That's what mattered, right?  In any case, she really had no choice in the matter.  The tiny heartbeat issuing from the tiny being hunched in her stomach was - to the doctor's ears at least - convincingly male.

And so, after endless naming debates, sleepless nights bent over dictionaries wondering over spelling and pronunciation, it was decided.  When I was put into my mother's waiting arms, she expected to see a baby Eliot, all set for a life of law school and diplomacy.  Or maybe, with that name, a stint in the State Department.  She could just see his little sweater-vested figure, running off to a meeting of the Honor Society; equipped with clipboard and pen for an interview with the Senator; beaming from under a mortarboard - suma cum laude no doubt.

As these cheerful hopes for the future were passing before her eyes, the nurse glanced at the wee, black-haired mix of chromosomes perched by my mother's chest, and said, soothingly,

"Oh my, what a lovely little girl she is!"

 So, I wasn't named Eliot after all.  Fortunately, my parents had picked out a legitimate girl's name, just in case, so I wasn't doomed to go through life as Eliotina.  Still, part of me always empathized with my unborn brother.  He seemed a kind of sympathetic role model, the class nerd who turns out to be the handsome, sensitive bachelor at your 15th class reunion.  But I related to him for another reason.  He was talented and bright, but he didn't use his gifts to garner accolades or achieve millions.  He was drawn - partly by influence of name, but certainly through strength of spirit - to help the world's less fortunate, people who have all the yearnings we have, but less ability and choice to fulfill them.
 

Eliot, for me, became a watchword for curiosity, integrity, and action.

So far so good. My endeavor had a name. But the more I researched "international relations", "poverty", "hunger", "gender equity", "global warming" and a host of other world issues that demand attention, I began to wonder what I, one person, could add to the growing pool of organizations, groups and clubs whose sole purpose it was to deliver aid to suffering populations.

alias eliot started out by trying to be all things to all people. I included articles on politics, climate change, and peace. I wrote profiles on issues ranging from female genital mutilation (FGM) to the UN's Millennium Goals. I was spreading myself (and my website) too thin because I couldn't decide which was more important: poverty or pollution? war or women? disease or disparity?

I needed to dig deeper to find my own perspective on things.

I've always been a knowledge junkie. But while reading things on a diverse array of subjects (cosmology, history, philosophy, religion, physics) I realized this common undercurrent throughout. Curious, I decided to probe deeper - and found a whole population of scientists, writers, artists and thinkers to had noticed the same undercurrent and were fascinated by it. The unity of knowledge is a vast and unending exploration, but one that has direct application to the global turmoil we now face.

Wait. Something as esoteric and arcane as "the unity of knowledge" has practical use in current events?

I know it seems strange, but once you start reading, you'll find that it's true. Too often today theory is disengaged from practice (witness higher education), or practice is starved of theory (anytime we act before thinking). Which is not to say that every action must be over-analyzed or every thought put into action. But on a global scale, with human and planet wellbeing at risk, theory and practice are too vital to each other to continue this separation.

That's where alias eliot comes in. While I certainly don't claim that this notion of the underlying "unity of knowledge" or the bridge from theory to practice is mine, I'd like to think that there's a particular need for this kind of website that is not being filled by anyone else.

So now that you've got a bit more of an idea what we're all about, please start exploring. I'm pretty good at answering emails, so feel free to write if you have questions/comments/suggestions.

Peace.