archive #018

13-02-2010

We are an alien kind, shy and polite. We observe. We walk with our eyes cast to the ground in crowded places. Hold open doors and step back when people want ahead. We stumble on our words when we are surprised by being spoken to; the rare occasion when glances don’t pass us to the more salient people in our vicinity.
We know our kind when we glance around: the people who draw back, the people who are tolerated and well liked, but ignored and unacknowledged. We recognize them and smile. We feel no pity for the others of our kind. Not even when the crowd ignores them and our eyes meet, for we realize that we both know each other. We know our nature. We know it is in us to survive. It is in us to control.
You can find us in the background. You can find us in offices, in bookstores, in libraries and in universities, behind the scenes of the television. We have an urge to see, but no urge to be seen. They hand us their empty coffee cups to refill together with their files and folders to check, the scripts of the newsreaders to correct, the political speeches to write, the books to edit. We do not mind this. We will gladly clean your dirty cup. We’ll smile about it; tell you good luck and that the extra material is no problem. Our vocabulary exists of: please, thank you and no problem. As long as when you are out there you say and do what we want you to say.
We check the policies and correct them to our liking before sending them off. We determine if the books say what we want them to. We stand in the back mouthing with the famous speeches to see if they’re delivered correctly. We determine what you see, hear and even believe and are glad to give up the spotlight for that.
So, please, do not heed us, and we will expand our empire. We will watch you. Behind security cameras and policies, body-scans and chipcards that check wherever you’re going. We will watch your mobile phones and we will know all about you, while you nod and thank us for it, when we hold the door open for you.
The assimilation of your planet will be done, soon.