The world frightens me.

So many people. So many problems.

Everybody rushes through the town, thinking about themselves only. Many wear headphones, imprisoned in a world of their own, unreachable, until they decide to return to this world.

Televisions with advertisements everywhere. It tells us that the people aren’t speaking to each other anymore. It’s true. Everybody is silent, nobody talks.

No, some people do talk. But I can’t understand them. Their grammar is strange. Imperfect. Clumsy. As if they would learn their languages by watching television shows.

That frightens me.

A little further I can see cameras. Not in the hands of people documenting their travel. These cameras don’t have a screen. There seems to be nobody controlling them. There is no switch to put them out. They record everything they can see – day and night – good and bad.

They monitor us. Without exception. While we’re shopping. While we have a walk. While we’re getting to work. Nobody knows who is sitting behind those cameras.

Your neighbor? Your friend? An acquaintance?

This conception frightens me.

I want to leave. To a secure place. To a place where I have control over my live. To a place where I can choose for myself. That place however, doesn’t exist. I go home. The door to my place has a strong attraction on myself. Why? I can’t tell. Probably because there are no people. There seldom were. And nobody shows up spontaneously.

On the way home, I switch off the mobile phone. Because of the monitoring.

Oh no! Nobody can communicate with me anymore. In this world in which nobody communicates with the others.

Anyways. Nobody will try to reach me anyway.

I reach my flat, the door shuts close. My back slides down the wall. I cry. Why?

This world frightens me.

Originally written by Benjamin “blindcoder” Schieder in German and was published right here on his blog; and translated by me.

It’s published under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.