A Reader: “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller

Young Men, Young Women, and War

When reading “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller, it is nearly impossible to not think of the young men and women we send to fight our battles. War often begins when compromise ends. When this happens, the youth of a country has the unfortunate duty of going to war. In America, we take the poorest and least educated, train them, fill them with patriotism, and then send them off to solve rich people’s disagreements. Since the Vietnam War, the sacrifice of our young men and women has often felt like human collateral in the ultimate show of national might instead of a mission to vanquish evil from the face of the Earth. If you believe this to be true, this book will not make you feel any better. If anything, it will only give you more to wrestle with when the beginnings of war start to linger.

God on the Battlefield

“There are no atheists in a foxhole.”

There is this assumption that when faced with the possibility of death all of us turn to God. This idea is something this book tries to address via an ongoing debate. Beyond the foxhole, I have also heard it said, “We are all pagans during the good times.” What is it about the threat of death that makes us believe? What about living keeps us from needing a higher power. While I have never been to war, I have felt this pull in my…