Stop and think about that for a minute. We are the aliens to any other planetary civilizations in our glittering night skies. Keeping that in mind, is our behavior toward our fellow human beings really something we'd like to be projecting outward to potential galactic neighbors?
Human beings are killing each other over skin color and god myths, and have been for most of our history. God myths! Is it any wonder we haven't heard from anyone out there? If we can't even accept each other's differences, how the hell would anyone who might be listening in and aware of our existence—no doubt beings far different than us—expect to be welcomed here with open arms? Is our brutality toward each other really the first impression we want to put forward?
Unfortunately it's too late to change that. As the old axiom goes, "You're never given a second chance to make a first impression," and our planet's first impression consisted of Nazi Propaganda…
I'm sure—based on statistical probability alone—that the universe is teeming with what we would immediately recognize as intelligent life. But based on the radio and television signals that have spread out from our planet to a radius of eighty light years or so, I'm not surprised in the least that we haven't heard a word back from anyone—much less had the proverbial flying saucer land on the White House lawn. I mean, would you want to make contact with a group of beings who have so little respect for their fellow creatures or their planet that it borders on insanity?
For all we know, there are galactic marker buoys surrounding our solar system warning potential visitors to avoid the third planet at all cost.
The older I get, the more convinced I am that human beings, despite all our science and technological innovations over the past five hundred years or so are aware of only a very, very small part of what is actually going on in this thing we label reality. Further, I also believe that at this stage in our evolution, if we were shown what truly lies behind the proverbial curtain, the our species would suffer a collective psychotic break…