What's the catch?

Have you read Joseph Heller's Catch-22?  I found it more humorous when it was set in the wartime, military environment of WWII. Since the last millennium it seems to have seeped and oozed into all aspects of contemporary life. This morning we had significant issues with our internet connection. Our isp is noted for having a crappy system and even worse customer service. Catch-22: how to report a service outage when you have no service.

many paths can lead us through an enchanted woods

Photo by J. Harrington

Looking at what's happening with what laughingly passes for governance these days further illustrates the point I'm making. What I wish more folks would remember though is that an antidote to much of the system-inflicted pain many (most?) of us experience is contained within the very Catch-22 system itself.

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

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yossarian shouted at her in bewildered, furious protest. "How did you know it was Catch-22? Who the hell told you it was Catch-22?"

"The soldiers with the hard white hats and clubs. The girls were crying. 'Did we do anything wrong?' they said. The men said no and pushed them away out the door with the ends of their clubs. 'Then why are you chasing us out?' the girls said. 'Catch 22,' the men said. All they kept saying was 'Catch-22, Catch-22. What does it mean, Catch 22? What is Catch-22?"

"Didn't they show it to you?" Yossarian demanded, stamping about in anger and distress. "Didn't you even make them read it?"

"They don't have to show us Catch-22," the old woman answered. "The law says they don't have to."

"What law says they don't have to?"

"Catch-22".

-- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

Did you spot it? The solution? If not, go back to the first paragraph in the quotation. It's up to us to "stop them from doing." That means we need to be vigilant and at least assertive, sometimes even aggressive. Some of that has been going on recently:

• Dakota Access pipeline ordered shut down pending review
• State Sen. Scott Jensen says he's being investigated by the state medical board for COVID-19 comments
• Amy Cooper charged with filing false report after racist confrontation with Black birder in Central Park

If Catch-22 doesn't make it to your Summer reading list, perhaps you can, and definitely should, binge watch what used to be one of my favorite TV series, The X-Files. It too can help you to understand the system "they" want us to continue to support, especially if you remember these quotations:

• Trust no one. 
• The Truth is out there.
• Your own government lies as a matter of course, as a matter of policy…

Too many of us, too much of the time, seem averse to coping with the

truth

By Gwendolyn Brooks

And if sun comes

How shall we greet him?

Shall we not dread him,

Shall we not fear him

After so lengthy a

Session with shade?

Though we have wept for him,

Though we have prayed

All through the night-years—

What if we wake one shimmering morning to

Hear the fierce hammering

Of his firm knuckles

Hard on the door?

Shall we not shudder?—

Shall we not flee

Into the shelter, the dear thick shelter

Of the familiar

Propitious haze?

Sweet is it, sweet is it

To sleep in the coolness

Of snug unawareness.

The dark hangs heavily

Over the eyes.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.