I think of how astoundingly unlikely the Great Silence seems - how could there be intelligent life here, on this one world, "way out on the unfashionable end of the west spiral arm" as one of our writers put it, and nowhere else? And yet, as we look around us, millions of light years in every direction, we see no evidence at all that anyone else exists now or ever has.
The Copernican principle has been stood on its head. Not only are we special, we are so damn special that apparently there is nothing like us in all the rest of the universe. We are at the very center of the universe, evidently, because there is nowhere else where anyone or anything can even see it. And that way lies madness, but still, there is the Great Silence and how else can we understand it?!
I don't think we're completely alone... the universe is too big for that. Physics allowed us to happen somehow, and the same physics are acting on squillions of other worlds. But at this point I'm pretty sure that intelligent life has to occur less than once per twenty galaxies. I don't know why we're so unlikely, but I'm able to accept that we must be. It's the only theory that matches available data.
But some of the other theories provide food for thought. There are a few in particular that say Aliens are well aware of us, possibly even present in this solar system, and monitoring our activities. The question then becomes, "Are We Being Watched?"
But my mind takes this question a different direction than most. If we are being watched, then what are our ratings like, and who handles our ad revenues? Do we get a lot of likes? Or is the audience disengaged and just putting us on for background noise? Are we providing important illustrations of timeless universal principles common to all species? Or are we the 'Florida Man' of the galaxy, just doing one astonishingly stupid thing after another and somehow surviving? Or maybe it's like pay-per-view and the audience is placing bets on how long we'll last.
That last one, anyway, would explain why they might be watching us but not making contact. If they're booking bets about how long it takes new species to self-destruct, then they've got to prevent would-be cheaters from coming down here and rigging the odds.