{"id":30070,"date":"2013-12-12T03:36:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T03:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=30070"},"modified":"2013-12-12T03:36:09","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T03:36:09","slug":"an-interesting-pattern-ill-call-piggy-in-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=30070","title":{"rendered":"An interesting pattern I’ll call Piggy in the Middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — on the travails of negotiators & peacemakers ]
\n.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking of the simple, three-player version of the children’s game called Piggy in the Middle.<\/strong> Two plays face each other and toss a ball back and forth, while a third player standing between them attempts to intercept the ball in passing. In the case below (upper panel), Phillip Smyth<\/strong> is “piggy in the middle”. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m suggesting there’s a pattern here<\/strong> that’s worth watching for. Bill Keller<\/strong>, opining in the NYT under the title Iran\u2019s Hardliners, and Ours<\/a> (lower panel, above), thinks that if you’re piggy in the middle, “you’ve probably done something right.”<\/p>\n

That’s a thought that might have comforted my childhood, though I don’t think it’s true in an “always applicable” sense. I do think it suggests that both sides in a fierce argument may often have something to be said for them, and that a skillful negotiator will be one who can “hear the truth” in both sides and winnow them out of the turmoil as the basis for a rapprochement<\/em>…<\/p>\n

And BTW, it’s clearly a lot more work being “piggy in the middle” that either of the two other players — for one thing, you’re constantly forced to spin around to catch a ball you just missed, as it whistles by in the opposite direction to the one it was going in when you just missed it. Blessed are the peacemakers.<\/em> <\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Wikipedia’s entry on Piggy in the Middle<\/strong> is titled Keep Away<\/a>. As of this writing, it contains what is undoubtedly my current favorite comment on any game in the entire literature of play<\/em> up to this point in time:<\/p>\n

The game has a worldwide use of playing; mostly in many countries. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s good to know, and or maybe not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — on the travails of negotiators & peacemakers ] . I’m thinking of the simple, three-player version of the children’s game called Piggy in the Middle. Two plays face each other and toss a ball back and forth, while a third player standing between them attempts to intercept the ball in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[580,102,653,529,464,93,984,983,982,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration","category-diplomacy","category-game-theory","category-games","category-hezbollah","category-iran","category-mediation","category-negotiation","category-polarity","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30070"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30085,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070\/revisions\/30085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}