Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Bureaucratic Chutzpah--Catch 22

Re the post on bureaucratic chutzpah: It's been decades since I read Catch 22 (is it still popular). My memory is that "catch-22" fits my previous discussion--two bureaucracies with separate rules intersecting. One bureaucracy is the Army Air Force (see James Q. Wilson's Bureaucracy for the view that the military is just another bureaucracy). It says--pilots must be sane. Makes sense to me. The other bureaucracy is the medicos. It says--anyone who fears combat missions and wants out is sane. Also makes sense, at least on first impression. Put the two together and you have catch-22.

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