What If Everybody Is Listening And Nobody Is Transmitting?

It's Fermi's Paradox. Why can't we hear anyone out there? Jill Tarter, Director of the Center for SETI Research, says she gets asked if everyone else is just listening all the time. Maybe, if they are smarter than we are, that's exactly what is going on. We should refer to the Three Laws of Alien Contact proposed by Pellegrino and Zebrowski in "The Killing Star". Loosely paraphrased, the laws are:

1. Nice guys (species) don't get to the top of the food chain
2. My species survival is more important, to me, than your species survival is, to me
3. In case of conflict, refer to rules 1 and 2

Shouting our heads off may be incredibly foolish.