Knowledge is Humbling

I am currently working on my PhD-Thesis. Going through all the literature, all the tidbits of knowledge that others have found and compiled is a humbling experience. This is driven home by the fact that I am working only in one field of knowledge. One of many.

How much you think you know and how much you actually know diverges.
(I saw a graph like this a long time ago on the Internet; Sadly I don't know the original creator of it, but it rang true ever since then.)
At one point you realize that you couldn't do any of this alone. That science is a team sport. You can only get further by working with others, not by doing everything by yourself.
It is pure hubris to think you know everything. That there isn't anything new to discover. It is also foolish to think that we are the pinnacle of creation. Or the pinnacle of evolution.
If there is a god, or a goddess. If we are eternal souls ... then the only thing I can believe, is that we came here to be humbled.
The universe is far greater than we can imagine, and the knowledge we have and can still accumulate is even unimaginable.
We have been given wonderful gifts, by something greater than us, or by an evolutionary process. Instead of being humbled by it all, instead of being grateful, instead of sharing, many feel entitlement. Entitlement not only toward nature, but even toward our peers ...
I know this, because I feel this as well. I fear that others would exploit me, and therefore I am less charitable than I could be.
We exploit others, and they, in turn exploit others, still. It is a chain of exploitation, and if one stops, another steps up. Many also keep on exploiting, lest they fall to the lower steps of the ladder.
There is one thing many on the top don't realize though: If the one on the bottom, the one that supports us all, perishes, then everyone else on the chain will perish as well. If the one on the top perishes, there won't be a problem. If nature dies, humanity will fall with it. If all humans were to vanish, nature will continue on.
If the working people perish, the rich won't be able to do anything, if the rich were to vanish, the working people would still be able to sustain themselves.
Strangely enough, it seem that the graph above also works for how much people know, and how much entitlement they feel.


Knowledge is humbling.
And yet I see people brag how much they know. Would they really know that much, then they wouldn't show as much hubris. They would feel less entitlement, and realize that survival can be played as a team game as well.