{"id":1176,"date":"2004-12-19T00:07:14","date_gmt":"2004-12-19T05:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/ratman_of_the_f"},"modified":"2004-12-19T00:07:14","modified_gmt":"2004-12-19T05:07:14","slug":"ratman_of_the_f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=1176","title":{"rendered":"The ratman as metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/diplomadic.blogspot.com\/\">Diplomad<\/a> is one of my favorite new blogs. It is written by an understandably anonymous Foreign Service person. He has developed a classic parable based on events that took place recently at his home in a rather tough corner of the Far Abroad.<\/p>\n<p>He describes with wry humor and unblinking clarity how we employ people to deal with nasty situations we cannot face, and then when cruel and savage actions occur as a result, we try to distance ourselves from what we have caused.<\/p>\n<p>His ratman is a perfect metaphor for necessary evil. When we don&#8217;t do a job ourselves, we can feel degraded by the actions of others who act in our stead. <\/p>\n<p>His post <a href=\"http:\/\/diplomadic.blogspot.com\/2004\/12\/ratman-of-far-abroad.html\">Ratman of the Far Abroad<\/a> is well worth reading. It may give you an entirely different outlook on those who do the dirty work that we may live safely and in comfort.<\/p>\n<p>Some of Diplomads work reminds me of that wonderful book by Laurence Durrell, <em>Esprit De Corps, Sketches from Diplomatic Life<\/em>. It was a hilarious account of life in an Embassy in Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Diplomad is one of my favorite new blogs. It is written by an understandably anonymous Foreign Service person. He has developed a classic parable based on events that took place recently at his home in a rather tough corner &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=1176\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1826],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-iY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}