Suicidal Empathy | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU
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Empathy — the ability to understand and share the feelings of another — is a noble virtue. But empathy can also lead us astray. In fact, it can be fatal. Gad Saad, a scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom at the University of Mississippi, warns how misdirected empathy endangers not just well-intentioned individuals but Western Civilization itself.
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Transcript:
Suicidal Empathy
Presented by Gad Saad
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 —
