| There seems to be a bit of what I believe to be a misconception among people. They think that aliens will judge us by the standards we set for ourselves. Because a lot of western society strikes us as decadent, greedy and cruel, they think the aliens will think the same. A lot of people (to be blunt, wackos) think that aliens are going to appear and teach us love, and peace, and not to use nuclear warheads. They may disapprove of love and peace.
What hasn't been considered is that maybe the alien race will have realised that apathy and selfishness are the only ways a race can go forward as a whole; that many people have to live shit lives so that the race can achieve things like say, space travel. Maybe if we go too far the other way - becoming one with the planet and nature - they'll decide we're soft and not going anywhere. Maybe they stopped loving their fellow martian centuries ago and have never been better off.
Of course, alien emotions are likely to be very different from our own - and that's if they even have emotions. Maybe each individual just fights for his, her or its self-preservation and they only work together when it helps themselves. This is why they won't judge us by the standards we set for ourselves, but rather by their own, unique standards. We can't ever know how they'd react to meeting the average man on the street - or anyone - until we meet them. | 
