The world owes Joseph Heller thanks for giving it the term Catch-22, a fictional paradox from his novel of the same name. It owes the Army rather less thanks for giving us a real-world example.
In Heller’s tale, Catch-22 refers to a set of rules that exempt those who are insane from flying combat missions. But since any sane person wishes to avoid combat, those who feign insanity to get out of it cannot be insane: “If (Orr) flew them, he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to, he was sane and had to.”
Read Full Article »