The price of amathia

By Herman M. Lagon

A quiet tension hangs over a community when policy meets the dinner table—where parents try to stretch a grocery list the way a rubber band threatens to snap. So when officials suggested last November that ₱500 could fund Noche Buena for a family of four, the silence felt sharper than applause. The reaction was swift. People laughed, sighed, or stared long enough at price tags in supermarkets to conclude that perhaps mathematics bends differently in the halls of power. It was a moment that exposed more than miscalculated menus. It hinted at something older, deeper, and far more human: the Greek concept of amathia, which translates not to mere ignorance, but to a chosen refusal to know better. Socrates described it as an ailment of the soul, the mind’s decision to turn away from truth out of comfort, convenience, or allegiance. It is a brand of intelligent stubbornness capable of shaping nations.

Amathia is not about low IQ or a lack of schooling. It is the reason brilliant people defend mistaken beliefs. It is the reason educated voters share misinformation. It emerges when knowledge threatens identity or worldview. Modern psychology supports this idea. Cognitive dissonance research notes that people often cling to beliefs even when proven wrong because accepting correction feels like personal defeat. In our politics today, this can manifest when supporters reject evidence because it would mean questioning loyalty, family narratives, or regional pride. Anyone who has scrolled through social media threads about corruption cases knows the pattern: “Hindi naman siya ganyan,” “Kalaban lang ang gumagawa ng issue,” or the classic, “Mas marami siyang nagawa.” These responses are not always lies. They are shields. Amathia thrives not in the absence of facts, but in the fear of what those facts demand.

Our conversations about public issues often wrestle with culture. Speaking up can be misunderstood as being ungrateful or overconfident, especially toward elders or leaders. The pull of hiya and harmony is real, and not without its strengths. It teaches courtesy and respect. Yet, taken to the extreme, it enables amathia—a polite silence that permits problematic decisions to go unchallenged. A teacher once shared a story from her flood-prone barangay. Every rainy season, water rose fast, leaving classrooms musty, chairs bobbing in muddy water. When parents asked officials about drainage plans, they were told, “Wala tayong budget.” Years later, the same stretch of road was cemented three times. Nobody complained, mostly because the new road made travel easier, even if the floods worsened. The people gained convenience, and lost their voice. Amathia rarely announces itself. It arrives wearing the smile of “pagpasensyahan na lang.”

In political leadership, the line between prudence and selective blindness is thin. Socrates linked amathia to moral failing, arguing that wrongdoing stems from ignorance of the good, but more dangerously from refusing to learn the good. Modern governance requires acknowledging mistakes like an engineer adjusting a blueprint mid-construction. Yet, public life rewards certainty. Admission of error risks headlines; humility risks ridicule. International studies on political cognition show that the more power one holds, the harder it becomes to accept correction, because the social cost of being wrong increases (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003). In local governance, this can be seen in the persistence of policies defended simply because they were passed by allies or predecessors. When citizens question a national budget ridden with insertions yet hear that criticism is destabilization, the public wonders if the issue is lack of expertise or amathia clothed as confidence.

The P500 Noche Buena discourse illustrates a disconnect between policy imagination and everyday life. To suggest that families can prepare a holiday dinner on that budget is not evil. Some families, out of necessity, have done it. The problem emerges when the suggestion is presented as evidence of economic relief rather than a snapshot of scarcity. It becomes amathia when data on inflation, wages, and cost of living are treated as inconveniences rather than indicators. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), food inflation in late 2025 remained persistent, even as wage growth lagged behind basic expenses. When leaders highlight creative budgeting while avoiding conversations on wage increases, public trust erodes. As one lawmaker stated, “A P200 wage hike is the true Christmas gift, not the imaginary P500 Noche Buena” (Cendaña, 2025). The clash here is not mathematical. It is philosophical. Are leaders tasked with helping citizens survive hardship, or eliminating the conditions that create hardship?

Amathia also survives because the public enables it, often unintentionally. Pinoys are empathetic by default. We forgive easily, adapt quickly, and laugh through difficulty. These traits are cultural strengths that shape global admiration for our collective resilience. But they have side effects. When resilience becomes expected rather than admired, it risks transforming suffering into routine. A school principal in Iloilo shared that teachers sometimes fund classroom repairs out of pocket. Parents bring paint, cousins fix roofs, alumni donate tarpaulins. These acts create community pride, but they can also mask systemic neglect. If government assumes communities will perpetually self-repair, then policy remains reactive. In the language of Greek philosophy, a society that normalizes struggle may be practicing collective amathia—a shared refusal to imagine better.

Addressing amathia does not require grand revolutions. It begins with the simple discipline of asking better questions and tolerating uncomfortable answers. Educators understand this well. A student who resists feedback may have ability, but not teachability. In the same manner, public leaders need spaces where dissent is treated as contribution rather than attack. Communities benefit when transparency is not weaponized, and when solidarity does not demand silence. There is a concept in reflective practice that growth emerges not in applause or agreement, but in the pause after a difficult realization. Many mentoring models encourage leaders to examine motives, listen to stakeholders, and weigh decisions based on long-term communal impact. This is not theology. It is practical wisdom—the type refined by farmers who watch clouds before planting, by fishers who read the tides, and by teachers who read the room before teaching.

Our history proves that ignorance is not our default. We are a nation of readers, storytellers, and problem solvers. Overseas workers navigate global banking systems, caregivers manage medical routines, farmers innovate planting cycles, and students absorb information at unprecedented speed. The challenge is not capacity. It is courage. Courage to question proposals that do not reflect lived realities. Courage to accept correction without defensiveness. Courage to hold leaders accountable without losing civility. Courage to recognize that knowledge is not a threat to culture, but a tool for its protection. The public’s criticism of the P500 Noche Buena proposal was not disrespect. It was discernment. It was the collective refusal to pretend that printed numbers could outvote lived experience.

A just nation listens before it explains. It takes wisdom from the field, the sea, the school, and the street. Knowledge offered with sincerity turns disagreements into direction. Progress is not the claim that something is possible, but the willingness to make it work fairly for those who live the consequences.

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Doc H calls himself a ”student of and for life” and, like many others, wants a life-giving, why-driven world dedicated to social justice and happiness. His views may not reflect those of his employers or associates.