Can you give history of "catch 22" situation?

Answer 1

Catch 22 was a very ironic novel set in the US air force in WW2.
The original situation in it was that the central character was told that he could only get out of combat if he was crazy.
He then applied to get out of combat on the grounds of insanity, but was told that he could he could not be insane if he wanted to get out of combat.

I read the book forty years ago, and as it said on the cover, you'll never be the same once you've read it.

Answer 2

The phrase "Catch 22" was used by Joseph Heller for the title of his book, published in 1961. He was extremely critical of military regulations and procedures. A "Catch 22" was a regulation whose provisions make it impossible to follow.

For example, your battle unit is on foot and 20 miles from the nearest allied headquarters. You take a prisoner of war. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, your commander must turn the prisoner over to the personnel at headquarters, unharmed. So, he gives you an order to march the enemy back to HQ and return in 10 minutes.

You could march the enemy a few hundred yards away, kill him, and then report back to your unit. But, then you'd break the law under the Geneva terms.

But, if you don't report back in 10 minutes without the prisoner, you are disobeying an order.

You also, under the terms of engagement, cannot let the prisoner go free.

It's an impossible situation.

The novel is filled with other zany situations. For example, a man named Major Major is a Captain in the armed services. One day, a message is received that he has been promoted. The next highest rank is Major. So, he becomes Major Major Major.

In an interview, Heller claimed that he drew on his own experience in the Army Air Force during WW II.

Answer 3

The phrase "Catch-22" comes from the book of that name by Joseph Heller (1923-1999), published in 1961. Catch-22 is a wonderful book, full of dark humor and absurdity, satirizing war, military bureaucracy, and by extension modern life and the ways in which they destroy the human spirit.

The word "catch" of course is used in the sense of snare, snag or entanglement.

The story is set in Italy in World War II. The main character, Captain Yossarian, is a bombardier (as Heller had been) who wants to get out of flying potentially deadly combat missions. So does his tent-mate, Orr. The easiest way to get out of flying more missions is to plead insanity. Heller writes:

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 he 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," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

In short, Catch-22 is "heads I win, tails you lose." If you can, you can't, and if you can't, you can. Fair is foul and foul is fair. Whenever you try to behave sensibly in a crazy world, there's a catch.