You may be correct in your logic. It seems as though Western culture has been somewhat conditioned to except the ETH hypotheses. Other cultures may have a more supportive view if an alternative hypotheses is proved to be correct. Have you heard of the Brookings Report?. It speaks to what you are referring to.
Although
Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs discusses the need for research on many policy issues related to
space exploration, it is most often cited for passages from its brief section on the implications of a discovery of
extraterrestrial life. The report does not specifically recommend a cover-up of evidence of extraterrestrial life, but does touch on this as a possibility. Noteworthy passages include the following:
"While face-to-face meetings with it [intelligent extraterrestrial life] will not occur within the next 20 years (unless its technology is more advanced than ours, qualifying it to visit Earth), artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the moon, Mars, or Venus." – page 215
"Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different ways of life; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior." – page 215
"Since intelligent life might be discovered at any time via the radio telescope research currently underway, and since the consequences of such a discovery are presently unpredictable because of our limited knowledge of behavior under even an approximation of such dramatic circumstances, two research areas can be recommended––
Continuing studies to determine emotional and intellectual understanding, and attitudes–and successive alterations of them if any–regarding the possibility and consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life.**
Historical and empirical studies of the behavior of peoples and their leaders when confronted with dramatic and unfamiliar events or social pressures. Such studies might help to provide programs for meeting and adjusting to the implications of such a discovery. Questions one might wish to answer by such studies would include: How might such information, under what circumstances, be presented to or withheld from the public for what ends? What might be the role of the discovering scientists and other decisionmakers regarding release of the fact of discovery?" – pages 215-16
"An individual's reactions to such a radio contact would in part depend on his cultural, religious, and social background, as well as on the actions of those he considered authorities and leaders, and their behavior, in turn would in part depend on their cultural, social, and religious environment. The discovery would certainly be front-page news everywhere; the degree of political or social repercussion would probably depend on leadership's interpretation of (1) its own role, (2) threats to that role, and (3) national and personal opportunities to take advantage of the disruption or reinforcement of the attitudes and values of others. Since leadership itself might have great need to gage the direction and intensity of public attitudes, to strengthen its own morale and for decisionmaking purposes, it would be most advantageous to have more to go on than personal opinions about the opinions of the public and other leadership groups. – page 215
"The knowledge that life existed in other parts of the universe might lead to greater unity of men on Earth, based on the "oneness" of man or on the age-old assumption that any stranger is threatening. Much would depend on what, if anything, was communicated between man and the other beings . . ." – page 215
"The positions of the major American religious denominations, the Christian sects, and the eastern religions on the matter of extraterrestrial life need elucidation. Consider the following: 'The fundamentalist (and anti-science) sects are growing apace around the world . . . For them, the discovery of other life–rather than any other space product–would be electrifying. . . . some scattered studies need to be made both in their home centers and churches and their missions, in relation to attitudes about space activities and extraterrestrial life.'" – page 225, n.34
"If plant life or some subhuman intelligence were found on Mars or Venus, for example, there is on the face of it no good reason to suppose these discoveries, after the original novelty had been exploited to the fullest and worn off, would result in substantial changes in perspective or philosophy in large parts of the American public, at least any more than, let us say, did the discovery of the coelacanth or the panda. – page 225, n.34"
"If superintelligence is discovered, the results become quite unpredictable. It is possible that if the intelligence of these creatures were sufficiently superior to ours, they would choose to have little if any contact with us. On the face of it, there is no reason to believe that we might learn a great deal from them, especially if their physiology and psychology were substantially different from ours."– page 225, n.34
"It has been speculated that, of all groups, scientists and engineers might be the most devastated by the discovery of relatively superior creatures, since these professions are most clearly associated with the mastery of nature, rather than with the understanding and expression of man. Advanced understanding of nature might vitiate all our theories at the very least, if not also require a culture and perhaps a brain inaccessible to earth scientists." – page 225, n.34
"A possible but not completely satisfactory means for making the possibility 'real' for many people would be to confront them with present speculations about the I.Q. of the porpoise and to encourage them to expand on the implications of this situation." – page 226, n.36
"It is perhaps interesting to note that when asked what the consequences of the discovery of superior life would be, an audience of Saturday Review readership chose, for the most part, not to answer the question at all, in spite of their detailed answers to many other speculative questions." – page 226 n.34
"Such studies would include historical reactions to hoaxes, psychic manifestations, unidentified flying objects, etc. Hadley Cantrel's study, 'Invasion from Mars' (Princeton University Press, 1940), would provide a useful if limited guide in this area. Fruitful understanding might be gained from a comparative study of factors affecting the responses of primitive societies to exposure to technologically advanced societies. Some thrived, some endured, and some died." – page 226, n. 37
While not specifically recommending a
cover-up of evidence of extraterrestrial life,
Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs does suggest that contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life (or strong evidence of its reality) could have a disruptive effect on human societies. Moreover, it does mention the possibility that leadership might wish to withhold evidence of extraterrestrial life from the public under some conditions.<sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1_0-0" class="reference">
[1]</sup>
Some
ufologists and
conspiracy theorists<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">
[2]</sup> argue that this section of the report, by outlining plausible motives for government suppression of a discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, furnishes evidence of an ongoing cover-up of intelligent extraterrestrial life already discovered. This interpretation of the report may have been influenced by contemporary
mass media coverage<sup class="Template-Fact" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from November 2010" style="white-space:nowrap;">[
citation needed]</sup>. A 1960
New York Times story on the subject had a headline reading "Mankind is Warned to Prepare For Discovery of Life in Space: Brookings Institution Report Says Earth's Civilization Might Topple if Faced by a Race of Superior Beings" <sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference">
[3]</sup>
In his article "The Brookings Report Re-examined," Keith Woodard writes that the Brookings Report "did raise the possibility of withholding information, but took no position on its advisability. 'Questions one might wish to answer by such studies,' intoned the report, 'would include: how might such information, under what circumstances, be presented to or withheld from the public for what ends? What might be the role of the discovering scientists and other decision makers regarding release of the fact of discovery?' Those two sentences comprise the report's entire commentary on the subject of covering up the truth." <sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1_0-1" class="reference">
[1]</sup> Others argue that many passages from this section of the report (e.g., those passages that suggest close study of the historical record regarding the effects on traditional cultures of contact with previously unfamiliar or technologically more advanced societies) comment on the subject of cover-up indirectly by suggesting factors that leaders would want to consider if faced with a decision about whether to release such information to the public.
