Catch 22 ---
Or Thumb 22?
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 :
CATCH 22: “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.”
.... “Yossarian comes to realize that Catch-22 does not actually exist, but because the powers that be claim it does, and the world believes it does, it nevertheless has potent effects. Indeed, because it does not exist there is no way it can be repealed, undone, overthrown, or denounced.”
.... “Heller suggests that bureaucracies, especially when run by bad or insane men, lead the members of the organization to trivialize important matters (e.g., those affecting life and death), and that trivial matters (e.g., clerical errors) assume enormous importance.”
.... “As the narrative progresses, Yossarian comes to fear American bureaucrats more than he fears the Germans attempting to shoot down his bomber. This ironic situation is epitomized in the single appearance of German personnel in the novel, who act as pilots employed by a private entrepreneur working within the U.S. military. This predicament indicates a tension between traditional motives for violence and the modern economic machine, which seems to generate violence simply as another means to profit, quite independent of geographical or ideological constraints.”
.... From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Minderbinder :
“Milo is a satire of the modern businessman, and beyond that is the living representation of capitalism, as he has no allegiance to any country, person or principle unless it pays him.”
....
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Major_Major_Major :
“Major Major and his father both reinforce the novel's theme that bureaucracy is absurd. His character also stands in contrast to the other authority figures in the book who relish their power and use the bureaucratic system and the law of Catch-22 to maintain or try to increase their power over others. Major Major's character shows how an indifferent bureaucratic system can award a position of authority to someone who, being unwilling and/or unable to handle the position, can only fulfill his responsibilities by hiding from them (as shown by Major's using the window to enter and leave his office and not signing his real name to documents). Major Major doesn't want to be compared with Henry Fonda or to be in a position of authority; he just wants to live a "normal" life by mitigating the damage dealt by his ridiculous name, but bureaucracy forbids him. It's yet another Catch-22, as indeed is the arrangement by which any of the men may meet him: you can only see him when he's not in.”
....
POISON PILL: Our current administration’s method of governance seems to rely considerably on a derivative of Catch 22, i.e., poison pill tactics. See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/opinion/16krugman.html?th&emc=th.
“A poison pill, in corporate jargon, is a financial arrangement designed to protect current management by crippling the company if someone else takes over.” Thus, modern political management must cripple America in order to save it.
2 comments:
“Grand New Party”? ---
From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27brooks.html?th&emc=th :
“Ross Douthat and my former assistant, Reihan Salam, are two of the most promising. This pair has just come out with a book called “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.””
....
“Liberals have a way to address these inequalities — the creation of a Denmark-style welfare state. Conservatives have offered almost nothing. The G.O.P. has lost contact with its own working-class base. This is the intellectual vacuum that “Grand New Party” seeks to fill.
The heart of the book is the last third, where Douthat and Salam lay out a series of policy ideas to help working-class families cope with economic, health care, neighborhood and family insecurity.
“What all these ideas, from the sober to the speculative, have in common is a vision of working-class independence — from bosses, from bureaucracy, from entrenched interests of all kinds,” Douthat and Salam write. This is not compassionate conservatism (which flattered the mind of the compassionate donor), it’s hard-work conservatism, which uses government to increase the odds that self-discipline and effort will pay off.
I’m not sure how quickly the G.O.P. can swing behind this working-class focus and this vision of government-enhanced social mobility. But the McCain campaign really needs to. So far, McCain’s platform is like an omnibus spending bill — lots of decent ideas thrown together with no larger social vision.”
See http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/07/25/0725palaima_edit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=45:
COMMENTARY
Palaima: Stomping all over Americans
Thomas Palaima, REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR
Friday, July 25, 2008
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Jack London's dystopian novel "The Iron Heel." In it, a super-wealthy oligarchy has used savage capitalism to destroy the middle class, bankrupt small independent businesses, and turn farmers and laborers into serfs. This no longer sounds like fiction.
….
In December 2006, I heard a Federal Reserve Bank official explain that the role of the United States in the world economy was to buy things and we should keep on buying things, despite the weakness of the dollar and our record levels of household and government debt. I was dumbfounded until I understood that there is a powerful segment of our society that profits from such policies.
….
A basic fact of history is that debt comes due. When it does, as in the major economic crises that plagued Greek city-states during the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, mechanisms may be found to make it perpetual. In the time of the Athenian leader Solon, many small farmers had become debt-slaves. Many Americans are effectively debt-slaves right now.
….
We have had 28 years now of deregulation and anti-government politics. We have had savings and loan, junk bond, Enron, Iraq contractor and sub-prime real estate scandals. Our government is off our backs. This leaves the poor, powerless and uneducated exposed to economic predators, what London called "the law of club and fang."
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