On May 12, the Canadian evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad published a book called Suicidal Empathy: Dying to be Kind. It’s a smart book, immensely pertinent to a time, like ours, that is awash with this diseased form of self-infatuated fellow feeling. Dr. Saad is correct: “Suicidal empathy is a civilization malady that has entered every nook and cranny of our lives.”

One of the peculiarities of the malady that Dr. Saad diagnoses is its persistence. Socialism – which is the generic name of this intoxicating and addictive drug – has failed everywhere it has been tried. No matter. The world manufactures new versions of Greta Thunberg, AOC and Bernie Sanders faster than they can be repudiated.

Democrats, Dr. Saad observes, are the party of empathy. It follows that they market their policies primarily as exercises in philanthropy. When it comes to tax policy, for example, they like to say that the chief issue is not raising revenue but “fairness.” Remember Joe the Plumber? He asked Barack Obama why he couldn’t keep more of the money he made. I am not opposed to people making money, Obama said, I just want to “spread the wealth around.” Spending other people’s money is a prime instance of empathetic behavior.

Suicidal Empathy is at bottom a criticism of misplaced benevolence. This may seem paradoxical. Isn’t benevolence a good thing? Let’s think about that for a moment. Benevolence is a curious mental or characterological attribute. It is, as the philosopher David Stove observes in What’s Wrong........

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