I first read
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, in the early sixties when I was on my first enlistment
in the military. The story perfectly chronicled
my experience at that time, SNAFU, Situation Normal All Fucked Up.
I am glad I
decided to reread it over this holiday season.
Now, being older and life experienced I am able to see depth in this story
that speak to the dysfunctional construction of human society and human interaction
in general.
The
overviews of Catch-22 is the story of Capitan Yossarian, a Second World War bombardier
navigator on a B-25 bomber, tasked to fly low altitude bombing missions over heavily
protected targets. The result of every
mission is a loss of aircraft and flight crew.
The missions are so dangerous that the Army Air Corps has set a maximum
number of missions that air crew members are required to fly, after which crew
members will be grounded and rotated back to the States. The problem with Yossarian’s squadron is
that their colonel keeps raising the mission numbers, resulting in flight crew
members never rotating out. Yossarian
is certain that if he continues to fly he will be killed. He appeals to the Squadron doctor to medically
ground him.
Here is the
catch. The only condition the squadron
doctor is allowed to ground flight crew members, is if a crewman is insane and
submits a written request to be grounded.
But in that case the doctor is not allowed to ground the crew member because
of Catch-22, which states that if a crew member request to be grounded he is
obviously sane and therefore required to fly His scheduled missions.
This book
will not make the reading list of the liberal, woke community because of racist
and misogynistic text; it can not fit into their utopian bubble. Though, the
attitudes toward women and race were the accepted attitudes, especially in the
military, at that time and place.
But for the
rest of us that live, and have lived in the gritty world of reality, Catch-22,
like George Orwell’s 1984, is an insight into social, political and
bureaucratic governance at its most dysfunctional.
the Ol’Buzzard
You're super over generalizing about the "woke" not reading Catch-22 because of dated language. Anyone literate enough to tackle a serious book like Catch-22 is also probably smart enough to place things in context.
ReplyDeleteAren't they making a new movie of this? I think I read that somewhere.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is dated, but a great story and a terrific satire on military "intelligence" and the established, bureaucratic nonsense that runs this world.
ReplyDeleteI reread it last year. It's a great story. Reminded me of several times in my life that were like that. My dad used to tell me about his adventures in the military and how strangely close to this story the ideas were.
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