Wodehouse that all other Britishnhumor falls slightly flat. In anynevent, it is a tale of three Englishngentlemen who decide to rent anboat and row up the Thames forna short vacation. Their misadventuresnare amusing, and theirnvarious fantasies about themselvesnand their respective abilitiesncertainly need little psycho-nDope, Inc.nPatrick Anderson: High InnAmerica; Viking Press; NewnYork.nThis mind-boggling report onnNORML (The National Organizationnfor the Reform of MarijuananLaws) is must reading fornanyone wishing to understandnthe forces of societal disintegrationnin America. Author PatricknAnderson, a novelist andnone-time speech writer fornJimmy Carter, has provided anstraightforward and generallynsympathetic account ofnNC^ML’s first ten years andnthe free-wheeling, utterly amoralnpromotional genius whonfounded the organization andnbuilt it into a powerful politicalnlobby.nFor the reader who has notnbeen initiated into the junglenof high-level power politics, itnis a shock to read this documentationnof the sleazy half-truths,ndeception, cover-up, manipula-nanalytical interpretation —nwhich, naturally, may help tonbring up a more balanced generation.nMcCutcheon and Jeromenwrote to civilized people aboutncivilized people, and their worknwas supposed to reinforce thencivility of their readers. It’s theirnundoing in ourtime,of course. DnIn the Mailntion and blackmail brought tonbear in pursuit of legislativengoals. Even more startling is thenspectacle of White House staffnmembers, business executives,nthe head of a subsidiary of thenFord Foundation, a former UnitednStates Attorney General,nmany journalists, several Harvardnprofessors and other presumablynrespectable folk openlynjoined in a common project withna whole menagerie of drug dealers,ndrug smugglers, Yippies,nrevolutionaries and sundry otherncategories of society’s refuse.nUndoubtedly Anderson hasn’tna glimmer of his book’s potentialnto further erode the hegemony ofnthe liberal culture for. being andrug user himself, he seems blindnto the revulsion which his revelationnprovokes. [For a more completencommentary on this booknand its significance, see the Junen1981 issue of Persuasion AtnWork, published by The RockfordnInstitute.) (JAH) anUnconditional Surrender: God’s Program for Victory by GarynNorth; Geneva Press; Tyler, Texas. An introduction into the basicsnof Christianity which covers issues like the nature o£ God, man andnlaw and the confHct between Christian institutions and the institutionsnof secular humanism.nThe Hospital That Ate Chicago by George Ross Fisher, M.D.; ThenSaunders Press; Philadelphia. An in-depth, detailed study of the costnof health care and hospitals, including iMedicare, Medicaid and privateninsurance.n321nChronicles of CttlturenPerceptiblesnRobert Palmer: Deep Blues;nViking Press: New York.nIN FocusnA peculiar book which purportsnto treat one of the mostnimportant phenomena of Americannfolk music found its way tonour desk, and it certamlv becamena source of mild embarrassment.nThe author, who is creditednwith working for both thenNew York Times and Penthousen[this may be the root of the problemn) offers an odd approach to thenhistory and sociocultural assessmentnof the so-called rural Deltanblues—the archetypal vocal formnwhich was destined to exert annenormous influence on America’snmusical culture. The book’snindex of names and songs willnperhaps best explain our uneasi­nnnness: there is no mention of LouisnArmstrong, Jelly Roll Morton,nMama Yancey or Ida Cox “Ma”nRainey and Bessie Smith havenone notice each, while Eric Claptonngets four, the Rolling Stonesnthree, and Elvis Preslev no lessnthan five respectful citations.nMr. Palmer’s idol seems to benMuddv Waters, whom he honorsnwith entire pages of reverentialnreferences. For the uninformed,nMr. Muddy Waters is a ratherncrude and uninspired-musiciann(electric guitar!) and singer,nwhose style and lyrical preferencesnhave never impressed us,nand who—in our judgment—isnquite ignorant of the authenticnmusical and poetic substance ofnthe blues as symbol, genre andnart form. •nSocial RegisternA momentous and gloriousnbreakthrough in popular semanticsnhas occurred in thisncountry’s strata of objectivenaffluence. The word “strike”n— for more than a century thensole property of desperate victimsnof economic exploitationn— finally has been wrestlednfrom the have-nots and passed over to the well-off, if not amplynmoneyed, social circles. The dreary image of striking that was describednby Emile Zola and Upton Sinclair, who portrayed the unbearablenmiseries of people who were striking in order to giventheir starving children a loaf of stale bread, seems to have beennsuccessfully erased. The media now carry features on robust baseballnplayers who howled in despair as they defended their sbc-figurenyearly honoraria. And now the jet set is striking—the spiffy, wellfed,ngaily picketing air-traffic controllers who have come to thenconclusion that the benefits of middle