Read Morris Dickstein’s perceptive analysis of how Joseph Heller’s iconic novel, Catch-22, continues to impact America’s troubled psyche. Like a bracing speech by Ron Paul, it spoke truth to power, especially to those who were soon to face the dire prospects of war in Vietnam: What made Catch-22 so appealing to the young, no doubt, was its bracing cynicism, which rapidly became the default mindset of undergraduates everywhere. Flying in the face of what everyone imagined about the “greatest generation,” it mocked heroic ideals as little more than manipulative rhetoric, eviscerated mass organizations as totalitarian institutions that chewed up individual … Continue reading Catch-22 at 50