The Yossarian method

While calls for lifting the lockdown are perfectly logical, they lead to the wrong solution

In Joseph Heller’s 1962 classic Catch-22, the main character is an air force officer called Yossarian. One day he decides that he will not take part in bombing missions any more.

“What would happen,” the squadron’s chaplain asks him, “if everyone refused to fly?” Yossarian’s response is classic. “Then I’d be a fool to fly, isn’t it?”

And that’s why I am writing this article: Because if everyone — and his donkey — is writing about the virus, I’d be a fool not to, isn’t it?

But jokes aside, Yossarian’s answer hides a well-known problem of good logic. It is that logical answers