Catch-22 is what happens when you are hemmed in by mutually exclusive rules or conditions that work against you. Try to break one and you comply with the other. Break the other and you have complied with the first. Once such rules or conditions apply to you, you cannot control them, because trying to break them means keeping them. How does Catch-22 show up in real life?
In this article we take a close look, with examples, at what Sleight of Mouth patterns are and when to use them. They are verbal templates, tactical manoeuvres that let you glide gently onto another subject in an argument or under attack. If you do not like the subject of the conversation, find another one, fast.
How should you behave under interrogation? It does not have to be at a police station. In a mobbing situation the one doing the “questioning” may be your boss. When someone says, “This is an absolute disgrace, nothing has been tidied up here!”, or you come to your manager and he says, “Irresponsible! You have prepared nothing!” — formally that is just the speaker's personal opinion of the situation, addressed to no one. It is a provocation, an invitation to answer without thinking. The one who answers first is the one who falls for it.
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