Among other things, Catch-22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. Resulting from its specific use in the book, the phrase "Catch-22" is common idiomatic usage meaning "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type. Within the book, "Catch-22" is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic that, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions....

Examples of catch-22 can be found in real life, although none is as hopeless as situations found in the novel. Common examples include the following:

* One cannot get a job in a high-profile occupation without prior experience, but they cannot get experience without getting a job in a high-profile area.

* However, there are many entry-level opportunities available for those fresh out of college. It is merely more difficult to get good jobs without experience.

* One cannot get a loan without established credit, but one cannot establish credit without previously getting a loan.

* There are loans that do not check your credit, prior to lending. Also, those without credit can get the a credit-worthy cosignature.

* Until vendors develop applications for Linux, Linux's market share on the desktop will stagnate. But until the market share of Linux on the desktop rises, no vendor will develop applications for Linux.[2]
* One is unlikely to purchase a hydrogen-fueled vehicle without there being a network of hydrogen stations from which to fill up. However, creating a network of hydrogen stations is not viable until there are not enough hydrogen vehicles to create the demand.


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Note added at 7 mins (2010-09-21 21:55:36 GMT)
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Kvaka 22

Teoretski, nerešiv i kompleksan problem čije rešenje poništava samo sebe.

http://vukajlija.com/kvaka-22


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Note added at 9 mins (2010-09-21 21:57:16 GMT)
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In Heller's own words:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

Other forms of Catch-22 are invoked throughout the novel to justify various bureaucratic actions. At one point, victims of harassment by military police quote the MPs' explanation of one of Catch-22's provisions: "Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating." Another character explains: "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing." The theme of a bureaucracy marginalizing the individual in an absurd way is similar to the world of Kafka's The Trial, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The concept of 'doublethink' has definite echoes in Heller's work.

Yossarian comes to realize that Catch-22 does not actually exist, but because the powers that be claim it does, and the world believes it does, it nevertheless has potent effects. Indeed, because it does not exist there is no way it can be repealed, undone, overthrown, or denounced. The combination of force with specious legalistic justification is one of the book's primary motifs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22