A couple of years ago an Assistant Minister of the Tajik government visited us to discuss a possible joint research project. He was rather taken aback by our informal work culture, but seemed to accept it in the end. On the way to airport for his return flight he told us: “America is a very great country. America has achieved the first stage of communism.”

Obviously, this man had worked his way through Leninism and was thinking deeply about Marx.

We have indeed implemented most of the items in the Communist Manifesto, without recourse to political violence, or even Ayeresque consciousness raising.