Catch 22 Grandaddy of Weasel Words

Catch 22 Grandaddy of Weasel Words

40

The modern world is filled with Catch-22 situations,
As such Orwellian double-speak weasel words
Seems to be baked into our collective DNA.

Sam Adams as a young man
Found that need experience to get a job
But to get that experience
You need a job first.

No experience, no job
Leading back to no job!

Other related Orwellian weasel words
Involves such rules as “no tolerance rules.”

Where discretion, compassion, and common sense
Are not allowed. The rule is the rule is the rule.
Where any violation of said rules
Even if the rules make no sense

Means you are treated as a first-class felony
With the full weight of the law and state
Against you.

Miriam Lee and her daughter
Were separated at the border
Zero tolerance meant that
Agents took her child
From the screaming mother
Putting her in open-air cages.
.
Meanwhile, her cousin, Maria Lee,
Sam Adams girlfriend
Was arrested for giving a classmate
Tylenol for a headache
Calling in a SWAT team.

And making it a permanent
Record accusing her of drug dealing.

So it goes so many examples
Of Orwellian-like rules
Exemplified by the classic
Catch 22 granddaddy of them all.



Happy 22nd birthday, WdC!

The phrase "catch-22" is, actually, a literary one: it derives from the novel, Catch-22 , by Joseph Heller.

In the novel, a satire of the absurdities and horrors of war, "catch 22" refers to the fictitious regulation whereby anyone who wants to leave the war by claiming insanity (think of Corporal Klinger in the TV series M.A.S.H.) is denied, having proved that they're not insane, by the very rational desire to escape the war.

The phrase has entered popular parlance to describe:
a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations... Catch-22s often result from rules, regulations, or procedures that an individual is subject to, but has no control over, because to fight the rule is to accept it. Another example is a situation in which someone needs something that can only be had by not requiring it (e.g., the only way to qualify for a loan is to prove to the bank that you do not need a loan). One connotation of the term is that the creators of the "catch-22" situation have created arbitrary rules to justify and conceal their abuse of power. [From Wikipedia. ]

For tomorrow, write a story or poem about a protagonist caught in a "catch-22" situation. (Examples: trying to get a change of address; trying to get an identity document; proving to someone that you love (or don't love) them; proving (or disproving) a theory, etc.)

One of your genres should be SATIRE -- your work should highlight the absurdity of a particular institution or situation.

Weasel words are words that sound great but result in absurd outcomes as they shut down common sense and compassion often in unintended ways, zero tolerance is one of my favorites. It means the absurd result of arresting a teenager at school with a full swat team called because they gave their classmate a Tylenol, which was defined as being against the school's policy of absolutely no tolerance of drugs at school. This really happened a number of years ago.