Very often this sort of discussion turns to the idea of the "wise, advanced" aliens contemplating the immature and rambunctious terrestrials from afar. I think this a patronizing view of humanity which the ETIs are probably old and wise enough to have abandoned a long time ago, especially since I suspect ETI may already have a lot of experience at dealing with new species.

Cultural clashes in our own history are not necessarily a model for contact with extra- terrestrial civilizations: remember, they are going to be VERY different from us, even with face-to-face contact, communication will probably be very difficult, communication by transmitted signals much more so.

Also, the fact that we will probably be technologically backward compared to them does not necessarily mean they will consider us primitive...I'm sure time-traveling ancient Greeks or Romans could have intellectually held their own against us once they got over their awe at our technology. Not a truly good example, I recognize, we are of the same species, but I think you get my point. If we find ETI first, we may have the technological edge, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be more primitive than us. They may have finished the technological phase of their development eons before we started ours, and have since moved on to bigger and better things, like finance and management. They may even have "subbed out" or "outsourced" their technology to their neighbors, just as Americans seem determined to do now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is we have absolutely no idea what THEY are going to be like. Not only that, They are all as different from each other as we are from any one of them. That's if they even exist at all: remember, we must define ETI primarily by their ability to communicate with us. Right now, for us, "intelligence" is operationally defined as "the ability to build radio telescopes or spaceships".