CatchTwentyTwo

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: Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, is an outlandish novel set in WWII featuring the cynical, jaded, and possibly the only man left who's sane, Yossarian. This novel coined the phrase, Catch-22, that basically means a situation pincered between two mutually conflicting regulations. Sometimes a Catch-22 is specifically designed by the powers that be, but usually they occur by fluke, and they are impossible to unknot.

One of the major conclusions of the novel is that it's up to you to escape from the Gordian hellhole, and you have to do this by perseverance and courage. I think you must gain the sense to stop subjugating yourself to the crazy rules. Rules are just ideas; they are only in your mind, or our collective minds. When they are wise and just and fair rules, they should be respected for your own benefit, but when they are arbitrary and malevolent and uncompromising rules, they must be left behind. In fact, I suppose it's an important part of maturation to finally learn how to avoid being killed slowly by a thousand paper cuts. I wonder if enough people really ever learn that.

I read A Pattern Language by Alexander today as well. He puts forward the thesis that city dwellers are weak because they are homogeneous, as homogeneity demands weakness. Strong people have personalities, they are distinctive. Now that more people are becoming urban, what does that mean for our so called democratic society that demands citizen PeerReview? Thomas Jefferson ran on the platform of redistrincting America back into small towns, but that's just not very realistic. (Indeed, Alexander is not very realistic.) If we're going to learn how to make communities scale, I suppose we're going to have to learn how to make people proactive. I revel in the oxymoronic overtones.

Today, I just finished Catch-22, and I'm still ruminating on it. Yossarian lives! -- SunirShah

By the way, Sunir, you know more than I do about the founders of America, and reference them a lot. Why? Are the American founding ideals actually something special (we were taught that, but I assume everyone was taught that about their own country, so I don't really believe it; but maybe it's true after all if you're interested in American founders). -- BayleShanks

As for the founders of America, don't forget I'm Canadian, so I know a lot about America. I would have to say that America's founding fathers were very significant actually. It wasn't as if liberalism was very well established in the mid 18th century. Plus, the thought and politics surrounding the creation of America is certainly worth studying, especially given that the vast majority of the debate on the Internet surrounds American politics. The trouble, of course, is that the American perspective isn't the same as anyone else's, including Canada's. -- SunirShah

See also BookShelved:Catch-22

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