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,

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