“Ah, look at all the lonely people…” sang the Beatles years ago. The subject of loneliness has been tapped by artists throughout the ages as a rich source of inspiration. Painters, poets and musicians have captivated us with their art spun from this subject, because at some point, every human has experienced the feeling, sometimes acutely, and can instantly recount a time (or many) when they experienced the pain of loneliness personally – what caused it, and what, if anything, helped.
Loneliness is not merely the act of being by oneself. Most people spend so much of their day surrounded by other people and their needs: At work, with their spouse or children, driving in traffic, walking amongst others on the street or in the stores, etc. – so much so, that many of us yearn for more “alone time”. And there are those truly introverted by nature, who are perfectly content to be alone for long stretches of time. Being alone is not usually the problem.
Loneliness encompasses a much deeper emotional aspect to it. It is the absence of a feeling of well-being, perhaps feeling unloved, or feeling like a loved one has been ripped away, and it can tear a person to their core. You can feel lonely in a crowded room, if there is no connection to those present, or lonely surrounded by the very people that you love most in the world, if you feel like those people do not truly understand you. It walks hand-in-hand with mourning, because it is the lack of emotional connection to others, whether they have been ripped away suddenly, or if there was no one to be close to in the first place.
Because it is such a universal emotion, you would expect that every person would feel at least a little bit of empathy and kindness towards those who are going through a lonely period. Decent people would be appalled at the idea that someone would stoop so low as to take advantage of someone in a pit of despair. Preying on the weak is a pathetic and cruel thing to do, and only those of the lowest character would consciously decide to trick a person in such pain for their own advantage. If you would gasp at someone kicking a puppy, you should feel no less shock and anger at a person who would specifically target a poor lonely soul and twist the emotional knife deeper into their heart.
It is exactly for this reason that we cannot be lenient with those who would take advantage of people in that position, and that is precisely what the “love scammers” do. They specifically seek out lonely people, trick them into believing that they have finally found someone who loves and understands them, and then once the lonely person is addicted to this new feeling of being loved and needed, they manipulate the person into giving them goods and cash, promising them the moon in return. Which is worse, breaking someone’s heart, or finding the person with the broken heart, pretending to care for them, and then rolling them in the gutter and stealing their wallet? The former perhaps never knew what they did, or did it without malice. In the case of the latter, their intent and moral fiber is clear.
If you have been following along with our show, you know that for months, Davin, and now also Joe, have been spending time making people who prey on the lonely work hard for their money…money they will never actually see. Yes, the people perpetrating these scams are probably not wealthy people, and may even be very poor. If we knew their personal circumstances, we may even be moved to feel sorry for them. However, the crime they commit is not simply depriving someone wealthier than themselves of some money. You can argue the morality of that until the cows come home, and some people will be moved by the poverty of the scammer to feel that theft, undertaken out of desperation to feed their families, is understandable. Even theft from someone much more wealthy than the scammer, done by capitalizing on the victim’s greed, could be argued by some to be a lesser crime than the greed itself.
What cannot be argued away in a relative morality case is the act of stealing from lonely people, and breaking their hearts in the act. While a poor person may never understand what it feels like to be wealthy, every human on earth understands the melancholia of loneliness. There can be no argument of ignorance or innocence in what the scammers are doing, and for that reason, I will continue to encourage Davin and Joe in their quest to delude and waste the time of the love scammers they find, because if they are spending time wearing them down in hopes of separating Davin and “Richard” from their supposed inheritences and legal settlements, the scammers have that much less time to go out and prey upon the unsuspecting lonely.
Keep up the good work, boys. You are on the side of right.