Stupidity and greed

I’ve always maintained that the downfall of most people can be attributed to only two things: stupidity and greed.

After reading the story of the 80-year-old Pietermaritzburg pensioner, who was scammed for almost R20, 000 into buying a new electricity meter, I once again realised that scammers and conmen have no heart. They prey on the meek without any qualms.

It is said that the meek shall inherit the earth. Serves them right. They’re welcome to it. The way things are going nowadays

Sorry, got carried away there…

Some people are genuinely naïve and gullible. They seem to believe that their fellow human are to be trusted, and that good always prevails in the end. But this story isn’t about these naïve and gullible fools. It’s about stupidity and greed.

I trust no one. Least of all, myself.

Those who know me, know that I am a man with incredibly high moral standards, principles, and ethics.

But if you don’t like them, I have some others, as well. My others are scary – I do not like to talk about them. At least not to my family and friends. Or in public. People have been shot for less than what I have been up to during my misspent younger days. (I was lucky; I never got caught doing my others.)

Be that as it may, I have seen the light (not Eskom’s), and I can honestly say that I do not suffer from greed – and to an even lesser extent, from stupidity. If a scammer or con artist should try to bamboozle me, they’ll have one helluva job on their hands. I don’t want anything from anyone, and I’m intelligent enough to know this.

Those suffering from greed or stupidity are a different kettle of sardines. They’ll get no sympathy from me.

If you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, or join some harebrained pyramid scheme, or gamble irresponsibly, you only have yourself to blame. If you fall for an offer that sounds too good to be true, and lose all your lifesavings, that’s your problem. As we say in Nayderlunch: “Je zult geen sympathie te krijgen van mij.”

Some people are greedy; and some people are stupid. But some people are both greedy and stupid. These stupid greedies are the prime targets for confidence tricksters and scammers.

Every now and again you see a story of a lonely woman who has been ripped off by someone she met on the Internet – someone she has never even seen in the flesh. The trickster takes her money; and that’s the end of their brief affair.

Now ask yourself: How lonely must you be to give money to someone whose flesh you’ve never even seen? The mind goggles from the stupidity of it all!

It’s like going to a strip club (not that I’ve ever been to one, Sakkie) and paying for a pole dancer who doesn’t appear.

Or being a member of an ad-hoc committee, doing an in loco inspection at Nkandla, expecting to find what the hell the taxpayers’ stolen money was used for.

Or expecting a truthful answer from one of our politicians.

It’s just plain stupid, I tell you!