Alexander Nelson

BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Nelson is an American world traveler and intellectual

Fourteenth-generation American, Alexander's ancestors first came to what would become the United States more than 400 years ago. Fully European, roughly half of Alexander's ancestors were English, with the remaining half of Alexander's ancestors being a mix of other Europeans including Germans, French, Danes, Scots, Irish, Dutch, Welsh, Norwegians, Poles, Slovenes, and Finns resulting in a genetic profile highly archetypal of ethnic Americans.

Born in the mid-1990s, Alexander is part of the so-called "Zillennial" generational cohort and was able to experience the dying embers of the analog era and the transition to the digital era. Although he had a smartphone, laptop, and high-speed internet by the time he was in middle school, Alexander still remembers going to the video rental store when he was in elementary school.

Living in progressive, cosmopolitan metropolises for as long as he can remember, Alexander has resided in a successive series of major global cities including Portland, Oregon; Medellín, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; Seattle, Washington; Moscow, Russia; Lisbon, Portugal; Salt Lake City, Utah; Washington, D.C.; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Alexander did his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and his postgraduate studies at the Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon, Portugal. His university courses were primarily in the subjects of business, economics, political science, and international relations.

A prolific globetrotter, Alexander has spent many years traveling across eighty countries on every inhabited continent, including almost every major country in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, where he has experienced the homelands of more than three-quarters of the human population. His time in each country has varied from a few months in places like China, India, or Venezuela to a few days in places like Montenegro, Estonia, or Slovenia. The countries Alexander has traveled across in chronological order are United States, Canada, Belgium, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Portugal, Morocco, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. An avid Couchsurfer, Alexander has been hosted in the homes of families in twenty-three countries and has hosted travelers from fourteen countries in his home.

Frequently in dangerous places, interacting with dangerous people, or exploring dangerous topics during his adventures over the years, Alexander has been mugged, assaulted, robbed, stalked, and harassed dozens of times and will doubtlessly be a victim of nearly every type of crime imaginable before his life is finally brought to a close. Though Alexander endeavors to treat everyone he encounters with genuine kindness he accepts that such courtesy will often not be extended to him. 

Alexander has visited all fifty US states and spent at least a couple of nights in every major American city. Though Alexander has never and will never vote, join any political party, or be a member of any political organization, he has spoken with thousands of voters across the political spectrum, worked in the political industry, and attended dozens of diverse political conferences in order to better understand his native home. Neither right-wing nor left-wing, neither conservative nor progressive, Alexander cherishes all his fellow Americans regardless of whether they happen to prefer the Red Team or the Blue Team at any given time in their life. 

Throughout his travels across the world Alexander has taken as lovers women of every major racial and religious background including those of a European, Asian, African, or Amerindian racial background, as well as those of a Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Sikh, Jewish, or Mormon religious background. 

Like most Americans Alexander grew up in the Protestant branch of Christianity, with his childhood defined by the trendy non-denominational churches that have become the most popular expression of Protestantism in the United States in recent decades. In his mid-twenties Alexander felt obligated to find a historic Christian denomination to be associated with and attended countless services from traditions including Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Adventist. Ultimately, Alexander decided to associate himself with the Catholic Church as it is the largest, oldest, and most powerful religious organization across the European World with a slim majority of the world's Europeans being at least nominal members. After completing the yearlong process of catechism Alexander was baptized, confirmed, and given first communion by an archbishop in a cathedral and remains a Catholic to this day. Possessing an average amount of religiosity as compared to other young Europeans around the world, Alexander has never and will never criticize another European for their personal level of religiosity and abhors the conflicts over minor doctrinal differences that have plagued Europeans for millennia. Moderate, pluralistic, and broad-minded Alexander has been graciously welcomed inside hundreds of mosques, mandirs, pagodas, synagogues, and gurdwaras during his travels. Though Christianity may be the religious tradition by which Americans and other Europeans around the world explore the transcendental, this is not the case for other groups and Alexander deeply appreciates humanity's rich religious diversity. 

Alexander's greatest intellectual passion is the field of anthropology, with a particular focus on European ethnography. The main inspiration for his many adventures Alexander enjoys thinking, writing, and speaking about controversial topics within the field of human anthropology including religion, language, culture, ethnicity, race, war, politics, and urbanity with a particular focus on understanding the past, present, and future of Europeans across the world. Though European ethnography has become somewhat taboo in recent years and its exploration can lead to significant repercussions, it is the role of the intellectual to pursue truth, regardless of where it leads and what it costs, as truth holds intrinsic value as an end in itself.

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