Misdirected Priorities

Clevinger and Yossarian argue about a soldier's duty to his country. Clevinger argues that a man has a responsibility to fight because if he does not, another man will have to. He argues that running away from combat and one's duty puts other men's lives in danger. Yossarian argues that he has a duty to protect himself from all those who are trying to kill him. While Clevinger's point is predicated on the idea that the war and its missions are basically inevitable, Yossarian's point assumes that war is a choice. It is a choice to begin it and a choice to participate in it, and he sees it as a personal affront that he is robbed of his own choice to abstain from participation. Yossarian has empathy and cares about his friends. He does not want to leave because he has a callous heart or because he does not care about the lives of others. He simply values his freedom, and he sees war as inhumane, unjust, and dangerous. His priority is self-preservation.

Very few of the men have the defeat of the enemy as their top priority. Milo is obsessed with profit, Major Major is focused on his inability to gain approval from anyone, and Doc Daneeka is concerned with proving that his problems are greater than those around him. Major Scheisskopf is the best example of a man whose priorities have nothing to do with winning the war. He is consumed with the idea of winning parades–demonstrations that have little to do with victory or readiness for war. This insular world of parades has its own rules and its own rewards, and he is too consumed with them to pay attention to anything else (including his wife, let alone the enemy or the war as a whole).

The men are not short-sighted due to stupidity. They turn to their small personal battles and wars because they feel isolated from the larger war they are fighting. They do not take place in planning or decision-making and are not rewarded for their actions. When a pilot flies his required number of missions, he is rewarded by being assigned more to fly. He understands that missions are chosen because of how they will look on his commanding officer's resume, not because they are important to the war as a whole. Any investment a soldier feels in the war his country is fighting feels futile because his role is unclear, even misdirected, and there is nothing he can do about it. This makes the men become self-absorbed out of necessity. They find a smaller world that they have more control over, and they invest themselves in that world.