taking—none of them treated with conventionalndistaste, some with the ambiguitynthat dare not speak its name. Annatmosphere of lurking violence and unrestrainednsexuality hangs about theirnconcerts, which often conclude withnriots, assaults on the stage and injuriesnto the police. Indeed, at the notoriousnAltamont concert (where our old friend,nMr. Michael Lang, popped up as a “consultant”),namid the general mayhem anman was stabbed and clubbed to deathnby the Hell’s Angels who had been hirednto keep order. As Mr. Sanchez writesnof that incident, “At Altamont therenwere no warmongers, no businessmen,nno oldies—only the pure, bloody murderousnreality of anarchy.”nAfter such incidents it might seemnthat a period of silence from the Stonesnwould be welcome. But towards warmongersn(i.e. conventional politicians),nbusinessmen and oldies they maintain annattitude of relentless moralism. “Wenhave got them on the run now and we’vengot to finish what we started. The waynthings are run in Britain and the Statesnis rotten …” lamented Mick Jagger innone such statement. Mr. Richard’s protestntook the existential form of gettingnKnowledge & OurnTotalitarian DemocracynThomas Sowell: Knowledge andnDecisions; Basic Books; New York.nby Charles A. Moserni.nowledge and Decisions is judiciousnand well-argued, filled nearly tonoverflowing with sensible observationsnon our contemporary American politicalneconomy. The author, a faculty membernat the University of California at LosnAngeles and a man of standing in hisnCharles A. Moser is professor of Slavicnat the George ^Washington Universitynin Washington, D. C.n2()inChronicles of Culturendrugged out of his mind. But Mr. Jaggernseriously contemplated entering politicsnas a Labor candidate and had long talksnto this end with the Labor Peer, LordnBradwell, nee Tom Driberg M.P.nThe late Lord Bradwell was a figurennot well known to Americans and, fortunatelynfor his political career, not accuratelynknown in his lifetime by thenEnglish either. Evelyn Waugh oncencomplained that the newspaper descriptionnof him, following his first electionnto Parliament, as a “journalist andnchurchwarden” gave a very imperfectnaccount of “that sinister character.”nMr. Jagger could hardly have known hisntrue political character and was apparentlynresistant to his sexual one. Still,nthere is a macabre propriety in the RollingnStones receiving political advice andnguidance from someone who was theninventor of the modern society gossipncolumn, a Soviet fellow-traveler, a HighnChurch Anglican ritualist and snob andna promiscuous homosexual with a tastenfor rough trade. Were they not alliesnin the same campaign, one spreadingnsubtle poison inside the citadel, the othersnululating threats outside thenwalls.? Dnfield, explicitly acknowledges his intellectualndebt to Friedrich von Hayek,namong others, and chooses a down-toearthnquotation from Walter Lippmannas the epigraph to the volume. And,nalthough Sowell does not mention him,nthe reader may detect throughout theninfluence of the soberly empirical sociologynschool inspired by Edward Banfield.nBanfield has termed Knowledgenand Decisions a “remarkable book” in anvery positive discussion of it publishednrecently in National Review. Sowellnbelongs to a growing group of socialnscientists who assume that establishednsocial and cultural custom distills annngenuine popular wisdom, and who seeknto elucidate that wisdom instead ofndismissing custom as an irrational socialnphenomenon.nIf this book has a fault—aside from anfew scattered points at which one mightncavil—it lies in the abundance of itsnmaterial, which sometimes obscures thenoutlines of the author’s argument. It isndivided into two sections: one on “SocialnInstitutions,” the other on “Trendsnand Issues.” In the first section Sowellndiscusses the role of knowledge in thenmaking of economic and political decisions,nand the economic, social and politicaln”trade-offs” which must also benrecognized in reaching them. The secondnpart consists of observations on historicalntrends in economics, law andnpolitics, observations generally basednon points which Sowell has made in thenfirst section.nThe richness of this book’s substancenis such as to make it quite impossiblenfor a reviewer to deal with more than anfew of the major strands runningnthrough it. Thus let’s concentrate onnSowell’s first point: the importance ofnknowledge in the making of social decisions,nand, as a corollary, the role ofnintellectuals in our increasingly complexnmodern society.nHe correctly maintains that the gatheringnand utilization of knowledge requiresnmuch effort in a centralized state:n”knowledge can be enormously costly,”nhe writes, “and is often widely scatterednin uneven fragments, too small to be individuallynusable in decision-making.nThe communication and coordinationnof these scattered fragments ofnknowledge is one of the basic problemsn—perhaps the basic problem—of anynsociety . . .” If this is so—and certainlynAmerican culture knows at least instinctivelynthat it is, for otherwise wenwould not allocate immense sums eachnyear to universities, institutes and publicnpolicy research centers—then a societynmust seek to economize on thencosts of utilizing knowledge. This isnwhy, Sowell points out, a culture “sorts”nand “labels” individuals through suchn