One of my favorite parts in Catch-22 was when the chaplain lied and it was good: > The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy techn

One of my favorite parts in Catch-22 was when the chaplain lied and it was good: > The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character. In the right frame, any action can be justified.