The reason we haven't found intelligent life outside Earth is because what we think of as the peak of a species is nothing but a fluke, humanity is a freak of nature that lucked into dominance on Earth.

You think your intelligence and consciousness are something to take pride in, a gift worth treasuring. That all species aspire to self awareness and a limitless exploration of the world as it exists in your minds eye. We're a mistake, a one in infinity chance, we're alone in the universe and always will be. There's no advanced alien race out there, like us but different. We rose to the top thanks to our unique traits, and now those traits have no outward threats to be directed towards so we turn it inward and destroy ourselves. Remove your ego from the equation for 5 minutes and look at things logically, humanity is a mistake and nothing more.