Humans are, as most other species on this planet, genetically evolved for competition, war and divide & conquer. Are there any alternatives? And what do the aliens think? Obviously I can't answer any interesting questions with any degree of certainty, but since I'm human I'll conjure up all the stupidity I can muster and try!
Bees don't compete in the beehive, there's only one queen and everybody else know their place. There's no competition in-group, only within groups. But competition is the basis of their evolution. If there was no competition, life on Earth would still be made up of the same germs that started this whole business 4 billion years ago.
Humans are not born into the group stability that bees enjoy. Some human males are prone to violence some of the time, which establishes dominance hierarchies in adolescents and primitive societies. Some women are attracted to violent men, just look at death row fan mail.
Women can lower a man's status, even by a passing comment, which is why low-status males fear women. See incels. Status hierarchies stabilize groups, so both sexes strive to keep fights to an acceptable level. This runs very deep. Just look at female primates' conscious and unconscious behavior that stabilize in-group stability. A female chimp will have loud sex with the alpha, but when she's unfaithful (which she always is, not the least for unconscious, gene variation reasons), it's a quiet affair. Why? Group stability.
Women mostly will use attacks on status instead of violence. Trump did publicly what most women do in secret, which is another reason I believe he is so hated.
Humans left to their own devices with a destructive philosophy will lead to a horrific society. See vikings. Interestingly, religion has made the most difference historically. Islam dictates people to give to the poor, Buddhism teaches to be kind to all beings, but Christianity takes the prize. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Love trumps both charity and kindness. Which is one of the most important reasons why Christian nations have been so dominant in the last few hundred years. Now that atheism and secularism steps in, love gets pushed out of the Christian in-group behavior. This is probably a reason why the overall competitiveness of Western Society is declining, even though Nation states still constitute the best group subdivision — especially those with homogeneous people.
We individuals increase our own status by imitations in different ways. Happily married women use make-up most of the time at work. Not for their spouse, but for status within their own gender. Putin started a war to increase the power, wealth and status of his own nation and himself. We compete all the time, and all our institutions are there to prevent us doing it too fiercely and to harness it to our advantage. The IRS is there to make sure we share our wealth. Schools grades our intellectual competition. The police, military and justice system prevents harmful competition. Social services and foreign aid help those that fall behind.
The Galactic Federation is watching. I'm not the one saying that, professor and former head of the Defense Ministry's Space Division Haim Eshed does.
What might they think of us primates fighting to the death over status? Is deactivating and activating nukes their way of saying "hey stupid monkey, is this really the best tool for the job"? If they are less inclined to individual and group status, and more like a beehive, that might what they're up to. Perhaps most of them prefer love, cooperation and encouragement rather than fighting.
Look at how far we got technologically in the last 300 years. Our competition got us here. If we keep this pace up, we'll probably be a threat to other civilizations within a few hundred years. Will they let us in to the Galactic Federation then, as in "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"? Or will they put a stop to our species to ensure we don't wreak havoc in the rest of the Universe?
Many reports of near-death experiences claim to have felt the presence of unconditional love. Some say the disconnect from that love in this dimension is what makes is constantly strive. Perhaps too much support and too little competition would make us weak humans stale. Or perhaps that's a future step of our evolution: when competition has taken us to the bleeding edge of our capacity for technological breakthroughs, maybe we need loving support to take the next stumbling steps as we enter the Galaxy Age?
Only ancient aliens and History Channel knows.
