The Dangers of Suicidal Empathy

How do civilizations die? The great British historian Arnold

Toynbee asked himself this question.

Here is his answer: "They die not by murder, but by

suicide." We in the West, the inheritors of the greatest

civilization ever created, are witnessing this right

before our very eyes. I call this phenomenon suicidal

empathy. As an evolutionary behavioral scientist,

I believe

empathy is a noble virtue and a central feature of our

humanity. The Oxford Dictionary defines empathy as

the

ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

It sounds great, and often is, especially when you're empathetic toward

the

people close to you: your spouse, your children, your friends.

But empathy can lead us astray. When empathy serves as the only

filter for decision-making, replacing a rational and adaptive

calculus of prudence, discernment, and justice,

empathy can cause great harm. In fact, it can be fatal.

The serial killer Ted Bundy used empathy to lure

women to their violent deaths. He would pretend to be injured,

sometimes with a fake sling or cast on his arm.

He would ask his soon-to-be victim for help loading items

into his car, and then when they turned their back, he would

strike.

Bundy killed through kindness, exploiting the natural proclivity to be

empathetic. Suicidal empathy endangers not just

well-meaning individuals. It threatens entire societies,

indeed, all of Western civilization.

Let's look at a couple of general and then more specific examples.

Mass immigration. In 2015, the Chancellor of Germany,

Angela Merkel, instituted an open-door immigration

policy,

especially for Muslim migrants, most of whom had no

intention of assimilating into their host societies.

Perhaps her suicidal empathy toward migrants was meant as penance

for her country's crimes against humanity.

But a decade later, Germany, as well as most of Europe, nearly

all of whom have followed Merkel's example, is dealing with the

consequences: vastly increased rates of rape, murder,

and social disintegration.

Defund the police. In the wake of the death of drug-addicted

felon George Floyd in May 2020, an idea arose,

namely that a racist police system was murdering innocent

people of color. Though this was easily refuted by the actual

data, suicidally empathetic mayors and city councils in

places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia cut

their police budgets. Who suffered?

The very people who were supposed to be protected.

Let's look at a few specific cases of suicidal empathy.

Canadian-born Omar Khadr joined the Taliban and murdered

an American soldier in Afghanistan.

The US gave him a forty-year sentence, but turned him over to

Canadian authorities after ten years at Guantanamo Bay.

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which suffered from

stage four suicidal empathy, gave Khadr eight million

dollars and apologized for his detention.

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities Medical School required

the class of 2026 to pledge their support for

diversity, equity, and inclusion, not to mention honoring

all indigenous ways of healing that have been historically

marginalized by Western medicine.

Because as they wheel you into the operating room, what you really

want to know is that your surgeon, who got there for some reason other than

merit, is up on how the local tribes handled

medical

problems five hundred years ago. Under the Biden White House,

the Federal Aviation Administration implemented a recruitment program

for people with severe intellectual and psychiatric

disabilities. Imagine how safe you'll feel when that

woke logic reaches the cockpit. No society

can long survive such an explosion of suicidal

empathy. Is there a cure? Yes, but first

we must understand where this madness comes from.

Suicidal empathy is driven by misplaced guilt.

The suicidally empathetic person feels guilty for being born

in the prosperous, free West. We might call this

privilege guilt, a common affliction among Westerners,

especially affluent, highly educated ones.

To inoculate yourself against this parasitic idea, you must take, at the

very least, these three actions. First, never

shut off your rational mind. Suicidal empathy tries to

override your capacity for reason.

It hijacks your desire to be kind, misdirects it to the wrong

recipient in the wrong amount, and in so doing, harms

you and others. Second, always ask, "What

happens next?" Cause and effect is an immutable law.

Actions have consequences, sometimes very bad ones.

Third, don't be tolerant of all viewpoints.

Not everything is as good as everything else.

Some ideas are better than others.

Some cultures are better than others.

Some religions are more peaceful than others.

These actions were once the default operating system for nearly

everyone born in the West. Now, they are a matter of

civilizational survival. The good news is this:

suicide is a choice. The West still has time to save itself,

but not much. I'm Gad Saad, author of Suicidal Empathy:

Dying to Be Kind, for Prager University.

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