Catch-22

Catch-22 is one of my favorite novels, and it really highlights how a lack of foresight (or Machiavellian control, depending on the situation) when creating rules can lead to terrible situations. Of course, things aren’t improved by bureaucracies that are more interested in maintaining power by “rules lawyering” whenever possible.

In the story, the protagonist, Yossarian, is a US Army pilot who is desperately trying to escape the war but can’t. It starts with Yossarian trying to get a Section 8 discharge for insanity -

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. ‘Orr’ was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian observed.

“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.

The term “catch-22″ has grown to encompass basically any circular logic argument. Because they are generally brief and poignant, catch 22s often appear as comics, both light-hearted -

and political -

Anyone got some law school catch-22s they would like to share with me for me to exploit/avoid when I get in? Although not quite a catch-22, I’ve noticed that a lot of current law students have not-entirely-jokingly told me not to go to law school when I tell them that I am applying.