Abstract
Examining formidable challenges to Farmer's (2005) call for "authentic [administrative] hesitation" before the suffering of others, this paper explores how the path to the praxis Farmer advocates cannot lead us in a straight line, but ultimately must detour towards points that public administration has failed to confront. Divided into three sections, the paper is built as an allegory on the oblique trek it is argued here that public administration must take if we are genuinely concerned with discovering the post-traditional administrative virtues that many hope for.