People who are in a position of power. You behave differently towards a king than you would do a peasant. Sure, they might be people, but being where they are...it's different than just going up to one and saying "Hi, can I be your friend?", because that won't work.

[A sigh, because now he's painfully reminded of his own abandoned leadership back home, and he has to admit, that that last part is true. There is not much that they know about them.]

True, but they could just give us the facts instead of allowing us to gripe in the darkness about how pathetic they are. That would help out, I'd bet.