Ready or not?

There are obviously much more educated people an ATS than me on the subject of alien life, and this is way to simple a question not to have been talked about before, if so i apologise in advance, if not bare with me.

could it be that we are simply just not ready for them? I mean as i look around the world that we live in, my gut tells me - absolutely not. we cant even get along with eachother, those of us that are sons and daughters of earth, could you imagine the absolute frenzy the presence of aliens would cause?
looking at it from the other side, if we came across another world and found that it had life, and we had even the smallest spec of kindness and respect, we would make damn sure that landing there would not completely disrupt there way of life. and how would we do that? I would think it would have alot to do with servailence, and study. We would probably have an enormous amount of red tape back here at home and would eventualy, very carefully and as hidden and disguised as possible, start taking a look around. and if we were caught or photographed, even simply rumoured to be doing those beings, and noticed the extreme effect of fear and panick and hostility, we would certainly back off even more. I think if we can seperate ourselves FROM ourselves for just a second and look at our nature and what it would be like to be a completely different being studying our rituals and actions and reactions, our habit for war and hostility, and simply the fact that we are all so scared of eachother - never mind whats in space, it's kinda just good scientific caution. Landing a ship in the middle of an alien city and proclaiming peace through a bull horn just doesnt make sense. We would eventually probably contact the "leaders" very carefully and attempt to communicate with them on a course of action. agreeing on certain rules and perameters, and let them decide when to introduce us to the general population. sound familier?

think about words like RELIGION, FAMILY, POLITICS, SCIENCE and snap your fingers. thats how fast those would all change if alien life was revealed to be true. if you dont introduce that as gently as possible things would just explode, like the difference between sitting down softly on a glass chair or throwing a brick on it.

now obviously on a site like this you are going to find alot more people than average who think themselves completely ready for the presence of other life, myself included ( i'd have alot of bet money coming my way) but i kind of shudder when i think of the "general" public dealing with it.

thanks for taking the time to read my two cents rant. happy festivus.

[edit on 14-12-2005 by tasteslikethunder]