RetroWARTHINK 024: Don't Let "Catch-22" Catch You--Instead, Pitch to Life...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22
The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944.
It mainly follows the life of anti-hero Captain John Yossarian, an U.S. Army
Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the
fictional 256th U.S. Army Air Force Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa,
in the Mediterranean Sea west of Italy, though it also covers episodes from
basic training at Lowry Field in Colorado and Air Corps training at Santa Ana
Army Air Base in California. The novel examines the absurdity of war and
military life through the experiences of Yossarian and his cohorts, who attempt
to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that
they may return home.
The book was made into a film adaptation in 1970,
directed by Mike Nichols. In 1994, Heller published a sequel to the 1961 novel
entitled Closing Time.
Officially published on October 10, 1961, the hardcover
sold for $5.95. The book was not a best-seller in hardcover in the United
States. Though twelve thousand copies were sold by Thanksgiving, it never
entered the New York Times Bestseller List. It received good
notices and was nominated for the National Book Award in March 1962, though
Walker Percy's The Moviegoer won. Catch-22 went through four
printings in hardcover but sold well on only the East Coast. The book never
established itself nationally until it was published in paperback for 75
cents.[20]:224–230
Upon publication in Great Britain, the book became the
No. 1 best-seller.[20]:233 Don Fine of Dell Paperbacks bought the paperback
reprint rights to Catch-22 for $32,000. Between the paperback's release in
September 1962 and April 1963, it sold 1.1 million copies.[20]:238–240
****
I have not yet read his 1994 sequel book, Closing Time
to see if he learned anything after 1961.
C22 is a condemnation on the USAAF/USAF that didn't have
any cultural or military reform impact (pun intended) like the useless bombs
they dropped in the movie. He is also a DISHONEST LIAR. He makes it look like
WW2 bad officers did the things in the novel and this is unforgivable BS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22
QUOTE:
Heller wanted to be a writer from an early age. His
experiences as a bombardier during World War II inspired Catch-22;[9]
Heller later said that he "never had a bad officer". In
a 1977 essay on Catch-22, Heller stated that the "antiwar and
antigovernment feelings in the book" were a product of the
Korean War and the 1950s rather than World War II itself. Heller's
criticisms are not intended for World War II but for the Cold War and
McCarthyism.[10]
Although Catch-22 is considered by many to be an
anti-war novel, Heller stated in a talk he gave at the New York Public Library
on August 31, 1998 that he and the other men he knew in World War II
considered the war to be "noble" and "nobody really
objected to fighting it".[This quote needs a citation] The
anti-war reputation of the novel was fueled instead by the pacifist, anti-war
ethos among young Americans surrounding the Vietnam War.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Heller
Heller was born on May 1, 1923 in Coney Island in
Brooklyn, New York,[2] the son of poor Jewish parents, Lena and Isaac
Donald Heller,[3] from Russia.[4] Even as a child, he loved to write; as a
teenager, he wrote a story about the Russian invasion of Finland and sent it to
the New York Daily News, which rejected it.[5] After graduating from
Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941,[6][7] Heller spent the next year working
as a blacksmith's apprentice,[8] a messenger boy, and a filing clerk.[4]
In 1942, at age 19, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Two years later he was sent to the Italian Front, where he flew 60 combat
missions as a B-25 bombardier.[8] His unit was the 488th Bombardment Squadron,
340th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force. Heller later remembered the war as "fun
in the beginning ... You got the feeling that there was something glorious
about it."[9] On his return home he "felt like a hero ...
People think it quite remarkable that I was in combat in an airplane and I flew
sixty missions even though I tell them that the missions were largely milk
runs."[9]
After the war, Heller studied English at the University
of Southern California and then New York University on the G.I. Bill,
graduating from the latter institution in 1948.
The United States Air Force Academy uses the novel to
"help prospective officers recognize the dehumanizing aspects of
bureaucracy."
****
Some WW2 veteran should have smacked Heller in the mouth.
If condemning the Korean War, Cold War & McCarthyism,
then write about THEM--not some easy push-over like WW2 participants who were
mostly no longer in U.S. Governmental service.
Disgusting.
The movie while circular to keep the audience guessing is
really in 2x parts:
1. The Struggle to survive air combat in WW2
2. The Racketeering of those not in danger of #1
REMFs
My 1st reaction watching C22 is the disgust I felt
watching the REMFs as they stood there in safety as the brave men took-off in
real B-25s medium bombers--this includes Tallman's stunt pilots/cameramen etc.
for the movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(film)
Second unit director John Jordan refused to wear a
harness during a bomber scene and fell out of the open tail turret 4,000 ft
(1,200 m) to his death.[16]
****
This is simply fundamentally all wrong in the USAF Douhet
mentality and surely ends up in all sorts of tragedies. That the USAF missed
(pun intended) that the REMFs Douhet bombing creates are inefficient, immoral
and should be stopped and not glossed-over with c'est la bureaucracy
(un-professional war is hell).
Someone not taking combat risks is in no position to
order around those that do. I'm with the Israelis on this; LEAD FROM THE FRONT,
by example. The corrupt USMIL is not on board with this recognizing old men
can't hack it anymore so as rank increases, out comes the coffee mugs and
obsession over chicken shit like boot shines and wrinkle-free uniforms aka Garritrooperism.
The squadron CO played by Martin Balsam should be in the
lead B-25 or not there at all. Positive consequences of this is the CONOPS--the
way the unit fights--would not be hid from him and things should be the best he
can see or make them--unless of course he is General Curtis LeMay who seemed to
be supernaturally "bullet-proof" during WW2 while others
around him died in flames like moths.
The REMF CO constantly raising the number of missions is
intolerable to watch, but WHY? He is not getting replacement crews at the
mission #number mark set by everyone else around them? Why doesn't Yo GO OVER
the CO's head and complain to higher HQs? That is what we are supposed to do in
event of immoral, illegal injustices within our Chain-of-Command. Maybe the
book depicts this? Either way, this depiction is BAD info for gullible and
biased people like post-1945 "baby boomers" who seem to love
the book/movie.
The most efficiently organized nation for war, Israel
expects its Citizens to serve in the reserves until 54x years old. They
correctly mobilize reservists for 30x days each year instead of playing phony
appearances games each month like the USMIL does:
www.combatreform.org/realreadyreserve.htm
In tyrannical Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Russia,
there was no mission completion end of combat; you fought until the war was
over or dead or maimed too severely to continue on--whichever came 1st.
Captain Yo, like his peers does nothing between missions
to improve themselves or their B-25s to increase their chances of survival. No
hillybilly armor floor plates against flak or demanding and/or stealing helmets
& body armor that the B-17/B-24 crews had north of them flying from the
U.K. WTFO? Did this happen IRL with Heller's unit? Not. He says most of his
missions were not dangerous "milk runs"; thus no depiction of
demanding body armor. The "interdiction campaign" in Italy by
the USAAF is detailed in the single-engined, P-47 Hollywood movie "Thunderbolt"
with IRL Colonel Jimmy Stewart and Lloyd Bridges emphasizing the interdiction
was to done deliberately to avoid enemy resistance and instead strike at easy,
push-over supply and infrastructure targets.
https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2021/04/retrowarthink-019-lazy-static-land-base.html
Had body armor been worn, the nose gunner whose guts
spilled out--ironically named "Snowden" (coinicidental to
heroic Edward Snowden the surveillance state whistle-blower?) wouldn't have
died this way to get everyone to reject war--a necessary human function.
Manned Combat Aircraft
I don't want to hear ANY drone panacea BS. To get a
significant HE destructive effect on most point targets requires at least a 1,
000 pound warhead--this means a MFI-17 SAAB Supporter "Cessna"
sized prop plane with a 200 hp engine aka a $100k loss. A Tomahawk drone
plane aka "cruise missile" like the WW2 V-1 "buzz bomb"
is a $1-2M throw-away with a 50% crash rate. Do the math. Can we win wars
arterially bleeding monies like this?
www.combatreform.org/highexplosives.htm
The twin-engined, 200 mph B-25 is viewed as WW2's best
strafer via Pacific theater Major Pappy Gunn's nose armament schemes--not done
by Heller's squadron in Italy that used bombs for B-17/B-24-style straight
& level attacks. So you have B-25 glory with Doolittle's raid on Japan from
aircraft carriers seen in a few movies then counter-acted with the bad PR of
"Catch-22" book & movie--which impression is the stronger
in the sheeple's mind? Oh, Commander Kirk Douglas solo flying an USN
"PBJ" aka B-25 gets flamed in "In Harm's Way". Did I
spoil the movie for you? Sorry! Catch-22! if I don't spoil the movie, I can't
list all of the B-25's Hollywood appearances...if I can't list all of these, I
can't be thorough. One must be thorough. Grin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-25_Mitchell
The movie shows some weak gun strafing during the False
Flag Attack on their air base. The B-25's 1, 700 hp 2x twice is in an
asymmetric thrust loss, dangerous "twin" format insurance
companies no longer carry due to too many crashes. The U.S. ARMY C-12 Huron
[King Air] is like a turboprop B-25 but faster @ 400 mph that should be
armored & weaponized by a 30mm autocannon belly turret for dive-less gun
strafing and hard points for PDMs like rockets & missiles the Iraqi Air
Force is reported doing the latter now.
https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2021/03/currentwarthink-004-usaf-snake-bit-by.html
During WW2 it was realized the 200 mph B-25 could be made to fly faster--400 mph with more powerful engines but this variant's fighter test pilot refused to not pull too many Gs, the wings tore off, crash-killing him, everyone unfortunately on-board with him--and the project. How many airmen died because the B-25 was so slow?
A lot.
The Perception/Outcome Disconnect Paradox
A stunning combat reality is watching the Houthi machine
gunner hosing down a Saudi Arabian Soldier across a valley; even though the
latter is running like an Olympian, all the gunner has to do is swivel his gun
sights a few inches to hit his hapless target.
This is the perception/outcome paradox in horrible
detail; the farther away you are from an object, the smaller it appears to your
brain from eye imagery. If you fly an aircraft in a flight sim video game you
can choose a subjective cockpit-view or an objective fantasy
outside-the-airplane view; compare the 2x POVs and you'll see what severe
things you are doing in the cockpit are hoo-hum and not much effect in
objective reality--which can get you killed as it determines if the enemy can
target & hit you--or not. Compare an aerobatic pilot's camera view with
what's his plane is doing.
The point is that one MUST DO A LOT at the
personal level to gain a fractionally-significant, objective, kinetical effect.
The most guilty of not understanding this is the malignant narcissist USMC that
is totally immersed into itself and its individual gunplay. The drastic CONOPS
changes Commandant Berger has instituted are still not even close to what's
needed to prevent foot and air-filled tire truck, immobile marines being TFS
and PDM incinerated in a war against a capable foe with space and air
surveillance.
In Catch-22 there is a truthful scene in the B-25
glass nose after Yo discovers his parachute has been taken by LT. Milo for
racketeering barter...the director commentary says the severe jerking to avoid
enemy flak was all done in-camera by their skilled cameraman.
The harsh reality of aircraft and ship combat is "jinking"
and "zig-zagging" is required; the platform has to be harshley
turned back & forth to get tangible hit-evasive visual appearance effects
and it has to be done before the enemy fires at you lest he hit you going
straight & level. A-4 SkyHawk pilot, the deceased later Senator,
John McCain is said to refuse to jink resulting in him getting shot-down and
made a North Vietnamese Prisoner of War (POW). So far, aircraft jinking has yet
to be depicted in any Hollywood movies but ship zig-zagging was in "In
Harm's Way" and the USS Indianapolis tragedy movie starring
Nicholas Cage. Apparently, the best
zig-zagger in naval history were the skipper/helmsmen of the USS Enterprise
in WW2--one of only 2x large fleet carriers in the Pacific to survive the war.
The name "Enterprise" is considered a lucky ship name and its
sad to see the 1st nuclear carrier, Enterprise retired a few years ago
after constant combats in every American war since the early 1960s.
FOBBITIS = Untenable in Modern War
As we speak, each day the American comfy FOB way of war
is under myriad attacks. Hundreds have died but this is all keyboard &
mouse-clicked "under the digital rug". Never has lying been so
empowered as it is now.
My goodness, STFU and admit your mistakes like a man,
USMIL bureaucracy!!!
What is it going to take to get you to adequately change?
Loss of the republic?
Enemies today have 1 CEP direct-hit accurate ballistic
missiles.
Shooting down all the missiles with $1M anti-missiles is
madness.
The obvious, large, visible FOB must go--our forces must
fight without FOBs with everything needed to make war MOBILE--be it tracked
armored tanks or off-shore bases:
www.combatreform.org/itstimetojointheMOB.htm
In Catch-22 the movie, the B-25 squadron cleverly
bombs their own base taking care not to D.O.T.G. any of their aircraft. In the
book, the Germans attack the base in exchange for getting rid of all the
inedible, chocolate-covered cotton LT. Milo obtained.
Planes must have folding wings to be trailer
ground-mobile. Monies must be spent to figure out how to camouflage mobile
battle positions from ground, sea, air and space. Ad hoc cutting local
vegetation doesn't fool thermal infared and radar sensors.
FOB-less warfare would mean everyone is a combatant at
all times with 720 degree all-round readiness--improving camouflage, moving and
covering tracks etc. There'd be no "REMFs"--no resentments and no
off-base robbing, raping and murdering civilians.
Catch-22 is
helpful in this need for the USMIL to reform and stop FOBBITIS but since it's a
black comedy, it's not taken seriously. Now that we know Heller made everything
up to further his lefty politics, the movie has almost zero credence.
War Racketeering: Legal & Illegal
"Idle hands are the Devil's playground"
is the American warning to stay busy--a style of warfare where a large
logistics "tail" is needed is an open invitation to all sorts
of criminal misconduct by the REMFs and even the returning warriors if not
totally exhausted. The right-wing hypocrite who doesn't do sex with prostitutes
ends up murdering his whore girl by throwing her out the window--leftist movie
makers have their digs in against moral, stoical people that if one bottles up
his sinful lusts they'll explode suddenly like the Telly Savalas "Maggot"
southerner in the earlier "The Dirty Dozen" film. The reality
is a lot of men went to WW2 and died as virgins--so this BS that men
can't keep their pants zipped is a disgusting lie. That having a lot of dead
time at a FOB near civilian populations invites misbehavior is true--but look
at the fundamental facts of an airplane.
An aircraft spends the majority of its time--99%
ON-THE-GROUND (O.T.G.). To keep aircraft away from civilians on the ground
means they must be ground-mobile and at sea moving at least 7 mph on a MOB
platform or be seaplanes operating from ships. The wheeled airplane needing a
flight deck needs more ships to operate than a few super carriers likely to be
awash in flames in the 1st minutes of Vulnerable Platform FirePower eXchange
(VPFX) TIN CAN warfare the USN loves. Our Aircraft Battleship and Frigates
solves this to effect our own air & sea "swarms" DoD has
constant fantasy orgasms about--while doing nothing to get them in reality:
www.combatreform.org/battleships.htm
The racketeering of men in uniform is prescient--change
"M&M Enterprises" patches to one of today's Private
Military Corporations (PMCs) and the danger of farming out war to mercenaries
authorized by the nation state has come to pass. The $$$ profit motive is
autonmatically against any military excellence which costs money to effect--a
"Catch-22" situation in itself. So much for my fellow military
reformers hoping (not a valid method) that war pressures would be solved by new
PMCs not wedded to old ways of doing things like governmental armies, air
forces and navies are. A bureaucracy is a bureaucracy--public or private
sector.
What's need is PROFESSIONAL organizations connected to
physical, objective reality composed solely of unselfish, innovative warriors.
Conclusion: SURRENDER and Ride-Out the Tyranny?
The 107 year-old Italian man's admonition to NOT fight
and let anyone and everyone take you over is naive & dangerous. Boomers and
today's Zoomers, WOKETARDS love this lazy shit!
They embrace max hedonism any way it can be instigated
for them.
What will they say when they are in a death kamp?
Too late then to be life-responsible.
Mr. 107 says Italy has been conquered many times and the
sheeple change loyalty colors with whoever is playing "Simon Says"
and live & let live co-existence follows.
What if the conquerers want you to DIE--like the
Nazis did to the people they conquered? Like the 11M Illuminati today.
I wonder how many Italians were sent to death kamps when
they were fascist-run allies of the Nazis?
Oh, Mr. 107 was left alone because of what? He's an old
man? He runs a whore house everyone wants?
To shut-down Mr. 107 with more nihilist life absurdity,
after M&M Enterprises shuts him down as unwanted competition, ("Competition
is sin" saith John D. Rockefeller) his body suddenly conks out and he
dies to avoid seeing the error of his ways. His wife/co-brothel operator
survived and laments "Catch-22" as the excuse U.S. G.I.s gave
her ie; in war morality goes out the window--like the prostitute the fake
Christian tosses to her death.
War is a necessary function and we need to do it well and
as morally as possible as detailed above. That Yo was lecturing the Churchian
murder that "you can't just murder someone in cold blood" was
for absurdity comic effect as the killer points out thousands are dying all
around them and no one will stop to avenge a mere Italian girl--as the MPs come
through the door to arrest Yo for A.W.O.L.--and not the murderer.
Yo was there only to inform his buddy's whore-wife that he
had died so the admonition to "let sleeping dogs lie" comes to
mind--let her find out when her lover is A.W.O.L. to her. 20-20 Hindsight. Yo
was trying to do the right thing. You can never tell what a woman will do on
any given situation, lol.
His Next Contradictatory Conclusion: Stand Up for
Yourself!
I was surprised by Yo's conclusion in taking the STFU
deal from the M&M war racketeers: "If my peers want out they'll
have to assert themselves like I did".
Bravo.
Unrealistic, but bravo!
IRL, those that buck-the-system aka bureaucracy are
KILLED either reputationally or bodily as Yo almost was by the illogical
whore-wife of his deceased buddy killed in the False Flag Attack.
I like the assertiveness Yo showed throughout the story
to somewhat fix the bureaucracy into a profession by following its state rules
& regulations--even if it was weak from a civilian normie "common
sense" foundation.
His Final Conclusion: Escape Bad Objective Reality
Altogether
As Yo was recovering from the whore's knife-in-the-back,
wound, he learns that his comrade pilot, Orr had escaped successfully to
neutral Sweden to sit-out the rest of the war by hand-rowing 4, 000 miles to
it. Hopefully, Orr thought ahead as implied in the story with his
attention-to-detail fixing the tent heater--to have a salt water de-salinator
and enough food to make it to Sweden--though its mostly a comedic plot
absurdity. More realistic would be Orr feigning engine trouble or
rudder/steering trouble and flying to neutral Switzerland--which is what Brad
Pitt's Commander Vatan in "Allied" should have done
successfully by skipping the time-wasting in the bar to see if his imposter
wife could play the piano as the actual French Resistance leader could. "Allied"
was constrained by being inspired by a real-life Texas rancher who had to kill
his double agent wife in WW2. I vehemently disagree; Commander Vatan knew
already from the Nazi baby-sitter spy ring bitch that his imposter wife with
great tits and mother of their child couldn't play the piano. She would have
done so earlier at RAF parties if she could. The time not wasted at the bar
would have given them a jump on the authorities and gotten the Lysander
STOL plane flying sooner to Switzerland. Moreover, I disagree that Marion
Cotillard has to die IN ANY MOVIE; I fucking adore her. IRL, British SOE would
have used her to pump false information back to the Nazis--and NO; I don't
think after the war she should have been prosecuted. She should have been
warned that her duplicity was known and to from now on be a good faith U.K.
Citizen.
Thus, if you take Heller's final conclusion to its
logical end, when confronted by war involuntary service, you ESCAPE to Canada,
avoid Catch-22 bureaucratic imprisonment and the odds of dying/being
maimed in war. A dangerous cowardly misbehavior if everyone had followed it; we
would be speaking German--or Russian now ie; living in a tyranny. Make no bones
about it, the tyrannical enemy is now HERE in the U.S.A. with the
Illuminati DEEP STATE election steal by felons Biden/Harris.
Where are we going to run to now?
Canada more WOKETARDED than even Amerika?
An off-grid, away-from-civilization, armed survivalist
camp like in Daniel Craig's real-life WW2 Bielski brothers movie, "Defiance"?
Yes.
However before going "native" we should
at least do PLAN E and exit the immoral, korrupt Washington D.C. failed 1787
U.S. Constitution "experiment" by states beginning with
TEXIT.
A stronger Constitution (C) based on the 25/40/35
psychological split is needed regardless if its a small or large society that:
* Has a Baseline of Civilized Behavior (BcB) based on
agreed-upon general main moral points, natural and man-made laws; everyone that
can must work at least part-time to contribute goods/services to the economy
* One of those BcBs is an admonition to NOT RACKETEER
problems for profit; the last 5x of the Biblical 10x Commandments would be
excellent
* Demands Citizen loyalty to the Constitution in writing
and signed
* Armed police to uphold the C
* Inquisitory legal system that FINDS OUT WHAT HAPPENED
before doing anything using public participation INQUESTS
* A society based on a stronger, pro-active Citizenry
where everyone does 2x years of National Service than the docile pussified 1787
USC sheepletons
* Armed Citizenry with arrest powers
* Borders secured by sensor-security fencing
* Free speech--but not LIEbelous or seditionist crime
speech
Summary/Conclusion
Don't play "Catch-22"--instead be
pro-active and pitch your actions to life--which Heller himself did in real
life. Shrug. Heller's disrespect to himself, his WW2 "Greatest
Generation" concocting misconduct done by others to advance his
politics to naive baby boomers is sick and intolerable. For this disgraceful
dishonesty alone, I cannot endorse anyone watch it more than 1x.
I would not show this movie to the men under my command
as it's not cutesy "McHales' Navy" minor G.I. racketeering to
get booze which not surprisingly Heller wrote a script for an episode of that
TV show.
The irresponsibility of nihilist-hedonists like Heller to
not come up with ANSWERS to the MILINDCOMP's racketeering and to run away and
default to pleasurism is a life mission failure. What my WW2 generation mom
& dad taught me was the basic decency if you bring up a problem it's on you
to at least try to solve it. At the
most, Heller brings up dishonestly half of the situation of bad military
bureaucracy.
Semper Airborne!
James Bond is REAL.
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