Human Beings in the Natural Scheme of Things

It is quite understandable and forgivable that the average person either does not believe or is ambivalent about the existence of extra-terrestrial life or the presence of remnant populations of hominid species on our planet (i. e., sasquatch, yeti, etc.). After all, there are literally thousands of distractions and burdens to preoccupy the life of any given individual that are far more demanding and confrontational. Nevertheless, there are those of us of perfectly sound mind who, through life's infinite variability and the accidents of experience, encounter something that does not fit into the natural scheme we were brought up to accept as forming reality. Then there are those of us that have never encountered such extraordinary things but for whatever reason are sensitive to the open-ended mysteries that really define our place in the world and the universe. The fact that believers and eyewitnesses are socially ostracized represents a political act of sorts in of itself. Then, when you have actual civic authorities denying the possible existence of such phenomena and abrogating (or at least belittling) scientific investigation into such matters, we have an overt political act of an authoritarian nature. So, in terms of how little it would practically cost society to officially honor the mounting physical evidence and persistent testimonials from people of all walks of life in terms of these outre matters, why is there such a blockade? Since one cannot really determine a practical reason for being utterly close-minded in these matters, it must be an ideological issue. The "cost", in short, is the threat such areas of understanding pose to a vested interest in an unequivocal position that is highly unscientific: the hubristic proposition that human beings are utterly unique! If there are remnant groups in the remote regions of this planet of fellow hominids, which possibly run in variety from Neanderthal populations in the Caucasus Mountains, to Australopithecines in the Himalayas, to homo heidelbergensis in Southeast Asia, to Gigantopitchecus in the Pacific Northwest of North America, then we must palpably (rather than merely theoretically) embrace the truth that we (homo sapiens) are really only once branch of the hominid family, and that, after all, we are animals like any other primate. Additionally, we must admit to populations of hominoid species which have successfully eluded our political control for tens of thousands of years. On the other hand, admitting that we are being visited and studied by extraterrestrials is to face the fact that we share the universe with sapient beings vastly more sophisticated than ourselves. Either way our sense of preeminence is threatened. The consideration that either we still have some close relatives surviving on Earth, or that we aren't "the only brightly-lit show in town", really is not a problem for those of us for whom it is natural to feel humbly captivated by the wondrous complexity and vastness of Nature and the Universe. Understanding a profounder chain of being only makes our experience of life more rich and profound, and indeed, more progressive in its broader insights. But the fact remains that there are those who are not content merely to simply and passively ignore (as most pragmatically do) the existential possibility of other human-like species, native or non-native to our world. There are those who instead expend intense and aggressive amounts of energy for no discernibly rational and constructive purpose to defame, distort, distract and destroy efforts to establish a broader understanding. It is with this portion of the population that you will coincidentally discover an obsession with power and control. Yes, many things do boil down to love or money, but we must not forget this third preoccupation our kind tends toward. The desire to preserve various kinds of inordinate power and its status quo affects intensely our progress in scientific endeavors even generally speaking, which is something many people fail to realize. However, to look at the very credible evidence that we either have living siblings clothed in a thick growth of their own hair, or that we experience visitors to our planet in suits of "interstellar silver", is to acquire a healthy measure of humility about our place in the cosmic order, and perhaps lead us to act with a healing modesty to our own fellow human beings.