"The chaplain had sinned, and it was good...The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character."
Is this what we are reduced to then? Our government, our generation, our world? Me, me me?
Why have character? Heller, makes the point, why? Who benefits, why we do, if we have a soul!
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Up in the Air
I would be a martyr for the world
Various nonsense, poetry and cacophonous blatherings. I am morose, verbose, and ambidextroose. Care to join me? I love to hear others poems please throw one in! Peace and love.
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I would be a martyr for the world
4 comments:
Dulcinea
At so many levels Heller's book resonates with the world around us every day. That quote about the Chaplin is a perfect example. Start a war in Iraq to secure a source of oil and stabilize it...well call it a patriotic duty, a destiny to remove a madman (forget the US government put him into power, and built up his armed forces and even supported his war against Iran)..
Steal millions from a trust company if you are the CEO, no problem just call it "accounting irregularities", and plead for forgiveness.
Stand in a pulpit and preach hell and damnation, family values, and plead for 'donations' while all the while cheating on your wife with men and women! (then cry for forgiveness not because you sinned but because you were weak...not to mention you got caught).
That is the divine truth about Heller's Catch 22, it is as relevant today, as 40 years ago, and probably will be 100 years from now! If you change the wording of anything, spin it just so you can justify anything you want.
Character be damned, it gets in the way of profit and power. Show me a man with a strong character, morals and such, and I show you a man destined to go nowhere! From a very early age we are confronted with choices, to sin, to steal, to lie, etc... The more comfortable we become with those choices the more eroded our character becomes. Soon we are nothing more than stalks of wheat bending and moving with every whisper of wind, falling in the face of adversity.
My bf asked me if I was reading the book or editing it, it is so marked up now with notes, post-its and high-lighting. I am enthralled with Heller's use of language and simile and opposites, etc... Just love this book. How about it, have you read anything else by him?
I can't read just "any " book now. I think I may go get a copy of "Breakfast of Champions" at the bookstore to "cleanse the palate" so to speak. What do you want to read next. Do you like Vonnegut? Breakfast is fun and about a guy who is going crazy and thinks he's a robot....sound interesting????
Who's rodrigo???? Another of your admirers I suppose.
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