The Insanity of War

I've wanted to write about Dr. Strangelove for a while, but I could never figure out the context in which to do so. Over break, I finally read Catch-22, and I realized that I could look at the two works as examples of the insanity inherent to war. Each world is a satirical look at the idea of war and the people who fight in them.

Dr. Strangelove examines the Cold War, while Catch-22 takes place in World War II. The insanity involved with the Cold War involved mistrust, brinksmanship, and paranoia. World War II (and any other shooting war, for that matter) was insane because people were fighting battles that they would likely die in, because their country told them to. I will grant World War II a slight reprieve; Hitler certainly had to be stopped, but putting one's life on the line probably seemed like not the best idea at certain times.

I don't want to discuss the themes too in-depth in this introductory post because I want to keep them for the actual posts. However, before I start, I want to do one unrelated post. You'll see why.

Up next: Who wants to be a millionaire?...