Catch-22 Power Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #25

"Won't you fight for your country? Colonel Korn demanded, emulating Colonel Cathcart's harsh, self-righteous tone. "Won't you give up your life for Colonel Cathcart and me?"

Yossarian tensed with alert astonishment when he heard Colonel Korn's concluding words. "What's that?" he exclaimed. "What have you and Colonel Cathcart got to do with my country? You're not one and the same."

"How can you separate us?" Colonel Korn inquired with ironical tranquility. (40.33-35)

One fault of the average citizen is to is to confuse the bureaucratic officials with the nation itself. These identities can often merge in the public eye.

Quote #26

[Colonel Korn:] "Colonel Cathcart wants to be a general and I want to be a colonel, and that's why we have to send you home."

"Why does he want to be a general?"

"Why? For the same reason that I want to be a colonel. What else have we got? Everyone teaches us to aspire to higher things. A general is higher than a colonel, and a colonel is higher than a lieutenant colonel. So we're both aspiring." (40.61-63)

This shows institutional indoctrination. Everyone is taught to aspire to higher things without specifically being told why. It is just assumed that "higher" equals "better."

Quote #27

[Major Danby:] "Yossarian, they can prepare as many official reports as they want and choose whichever ones they need on any given occasion." (42.27)

This bureaucracy has no qualms about manipulating information to feed to the public. Their goal is to control all public opinion.