Alien V, or Homosolecism

Today I was skimming through a short article telling how common planets seem to be around the universe.  The article mentioned "alien worlds."   That got me thinking.

Visualizations followed.     "Who you callin' an alien?"  an angry E.T. shouts at a mob of earthlings?   Or a yoda like being sittign cross-legged comments "Me an alien?   Why, am I not a resident of the same universe that you are?" 

It's our tendency to think and verbalize in those terms:  US versus THEM.  Whoever THEM are.  

So our close neighbors to the south are ALIENS!   Or ILLEGAL ALIENS!    "Look ma, there's an ALIEN walking in the street!"  Somebody get the roach spray.  Or an assault rifle.   Or call the Border Patrol.

It's easy to forget we are of the same species and are nearby residents of the same hemisphere on a little planet we call earth.  Divided when it comes down to that by mostly imaginary and somewhat meaningless lines called "borders." 

Not too different really from the way we used to make maps, with our city, or nation, or continent at the center of the world map.   WE, whoever WE are, call ourselves ":the People,"  while all other humans are "Barbarians" or "Others, or "Them," or "Hey You!"   Or ALIENS.

We didn't stop there.   We believed the sun circled the earth;  how could it be otherwise when WE are so important?    So crushing to the ego to learn that our earth circles an incredibly large sun, and is only one of nine or so planets, and not the biggest one either!    

Neither is our sun located at the center of the universe, but out on one arm of an ordinary galaxy that is one of millions of galaxies.   Sort of like living in a cardboard shack in Podunk, Appalachia, with an outhouse in back.

I guess if there is a point to this, it is to observe that truth has a way of defeating inflated self importance.  That humility is a law that nature teaches, while self-grandiosity is a law of human nature.  Science advances, but himan nature is still with us.