The Catch-22

Let me share something fascinating with you guys. now i'm not sure if you've all read Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22, but the premise of the book is simple. its about an U.S. Air Force soldier during WW II. Allow me to explain what a Catch-22 is. (no JJ, a Catch-22 is not how many balls Pepe Reina will catch if you kick 100 balls at him. hahaha.) seriously though, a Catch-22 is a situation with a double bind trap. wrap your minds around this.

picture a scenario during the war:

a soldier wants to get out of flying in a mission assigned to him by Command.
the only option out is to plead insanity to HQ.
the problem is by telling HQ that he is crazy would mean that he is sane enough to know he is crazy.
and therefore, he is not crazy.
after all, how many crazy people you know would admit they are crazy?

so that would not work.

if he instead chooses to fly the mission, which would mean absolute death given the chances,
that would mean that the soldier IS crazy.
and thus, would NOT have to fly the mission.

Hence, the soldier would have to be crazy to accept more missions and sane if he didn't want to.
but if he was sane, he had to accept the mission.
if he accepted it, he was crazy and didn't have to;
but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to.

to sum it all up into a something that's summed up, a Catch-22 situation is in fact, beating around the bush, and falling into it at the same time (Johan 2009).