Our "mad, mad world" was predicted by the novel Catch-22, says the writer who adapted the book for TV.
Joseph Heller's 1961 satire has been adapted into a mini-series starring George Clooney - who also produced and partially directed the six-episode show for American network Hulu.
Heller's novel is set during World War II, following a US airman trying to escape battle as his efforts are thwarted by a sinister bureaucratic rule.
The book is where the phrase 'catch-22' comes from, as Heller coined the term - which now is used to describe a situation from which someone cannot escape due to contradictory rules or limitations.
Luke Davis, who co-wrote the television series, said that Heller's story foreshadowed today's geopolitical landscape in our "mad, mad world".
The series premiered in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, where Davis told the Press Association: "[The novel] has a certain universality in the sense that it's always a good time to talk about the insanity of war.
"But it's also about the relationship between capitalism and war.
"So in many ways the novel is just the origin story of the present geopolitical here and now and it's very, very resonant with what's going on in this mad, mad world today."
Hollywood star Clooney directed two episodes of Catch-22 and stars as Lieutenant Scheisskopf.
Catch-22, regularly cited as one of the most influential novels of the 20th century, features a brutal rape, said to be Heller's attempt at conveying the horrors of war.
Davis said the scene was the hardest to write and was also the hardest part of the series for the actors to perform.
"The challenge was always that it's so dark", he said.
Davis' co-writer, Richard Brown, said the scene was vital to the story and therefore could not have been omitted.
He said: "I don't think we could leave it out because it's important to the story. But then it's about how you handle it. The sensitivity towards how you handle it.
"It's not graphically depicted in the show but it's important that it happens so that we understand his behaviour.
"The point of the rape scene in a way is that the guy gets away with it, because of the lunacy of the bureaucracy of war."
Catch-22 will air on Channel 4 in the UK.
