Why intelligent life may never be found

Is there a sentient voice out there and one we could detect?
We aimed our scopes into the void in search of intellect.

Then one day I beheld a stream from what might well be worth
Pursuing with some scrutiny — a place they called the Earth
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee a toast to pla-net Earth

At first it took some fiddling for Their ways we did not know
Then inspired tweaking solved it and we watched the Lucy Show

With Gunsmoke and Ed Sullivan, a childish world, no doubt
But not devoid of value as I slowly figured out
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee I slowly figured it out.

With Shakespeare, Dickens, Wilde and Shaw some isles had made their mark
That continent had Twain and Cheers (in primetime after dark)

I’ve studied how their world went wrong and what the cause might be
By listening to their radio and what they called TV
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee they loved to watch TV

For ages now no signal’s come from out the Milky Way
To assure us Earth’s folk braved the storm and still live there today

We followed raptly all they did and sought to find out why
With all their wit and wisdom they had let their planet die
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee they let their planet die

It seems that no amount of sense can lunacy outweigh
When service to the ego trumps what nobler minds would say

‘Twas greed and megalomania self-righteousness and gall!
If they’d only failed to light the fire of intelligence at all
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee the mind destroyed it all.

Is there a sentient voice out there and one we could detect?
Again we scour the heavens in vain in search of intellect.

In all the milliard specks out there, there seems to be a dearth
of consciousness. We had such hopes when we discovered Earth.
Sing hey de la-dy did-dle dee dee a toast to pla-net Earth