M&Ms

Catch-22 exposes the corruption and absurdity of the authority infrastructure in the military in an attempt to demonstrate the horrific futility or war. Milo Minderbinder represents the new ideologies that often arise from war-torn countries that lead to dangerously powerful authoritarian governments. When Germany was devastated from WWI, the power vacuum allowed Hitlet to come to power. Similarly, when Russia was frustrated with a self-serving monarchy, the Bolshevik revolution paved the way for the atrocities of Stalin. Milo Minderbinder starts out as a well-intentioned, low-ranking officer who merely wants to better the lives of his comrades by providing them with quality food. He starts a syndicate that “everyone has a share” in.

Exemption from flying as many missions as the other men gives Milo the opportunity to create a system of importing, exporting, buying, and selling that is too complex for its growth to be slowed. Furthermore, he does not have any other officers fully involved in his system. Since he is the only one who can understand his system, nobody can stop him. As the novel progresses, Milo becomes blinded by the power that he has. For the sake of making profits, he sells ammunition and military supplies to the Germans because “they are loyal customers too”. He even removes the morphine from the first aid kits that the pilots are supplied with. As a consequence, Snowden suffers a very painful death from a fatal wound.

When Yossarian, whom Milo trusts more than any other character in the novel, decides that he is going to find Nately’s whore’s kid sister, he enlists Milo’s help because of the power and influence that he has as a result of his syndicate. As soon as Milo realizes that he has an opportunity to make a profit off of smuggled tobacco products, he takes it instead of helping his loyal friend complete an honorable task. His decision shows the degradation of Milo’s moral fiber and the corruption of his values from absolute power. Yet, Milo covers his ethical perversion with the phrase “what’s good for M&M Industries is good for the country”. Such propaganda is similar to that of the Soviet regime that claimed to be working for the good of the people when in reality its only goal was to stay in power. (381)