The Buffins Are Coming!

Is it possible that there is non-human life somewhere in the universe that has been growing and developing for untold eons?  Imagine a society so ancient that the few thousand years of written human history seem like a moment.  Is it possible that such life has evolved beyond the need for any type of violent force to maintain order?  Through a billion years of ethical and spiritual development, it has arrived at a truly civilized civilization.  What would the encounter be like when such a people first come up against humanity as we are today, in our continuous state of international conflict and warfare? 

 

I imagine a scenario where the ancient buffin people attempt to extend their empire of peace into the habitat of humans in the twenty first and twenty-second centuries.  As the "half-pint," fleece-covered ambassadors of peace enter our Solar System they risk their own annihilation at the hands of a humanity that just might mistake their extension of friendship for aggression and their pacifism for weakness.  How would we deal with the gentle "invaders?"  How would you or I deal with a buffin that we mistook for a vicious, alien "critter?"