i've never understood this whole thing. let's say you live close to the galactic core. you have all the modern conveniences. you belong to an enlightened society that has faster than light travel, you can go pretty much anywhere in this entire galaxy you want to go to.....so you pick a remote planet, in a remote arm of the galaxy, pretty much away from anything else notable, that's populated by the recent ancestors of poo flinging monkeys, that haven't evolved out of the poo flinging behavior yet, they've just started to do it verbally. you go by hundreds of other systems, with thousands of other planets...to go to Dogpatch and hangout with Lil Abner and Daisy Mae? why the fuck would you do that? you wouldn't, and neither would beings from another, more advanced, fucking far away planet.
i DO believe in alien life, it would be incredibly arrogant to think that we are the pinnacle of creation. i just don't think the rest of the universe is into hanging out in bumfuque