Locating political education in a global time of pathos and apathy, this article explores some complexities that derive from various notions of human distance and affect potentialities of democracy as a way of life. It begins with a diagnosis of current, global realities and discusses the philosophical act of diagnosis as such. The operations of (a)pathetics thus singled out are then critically connected to Friedrich Nietzsche's 'pathos of distance', Michel Foucault's visit to Japan and William James' essay on 'what makes life significant' in which he critiques an accomplished 'democratic' utopia of his times. The conclusion indicates how the registered complexities present political education with further challenges of (non)translatability.