"Wonderful interview on two difficult subjects.  I appreciated Stephen’s explanation of social democracy.  My comments:<br><br>1.	Communism.  IMHO Marxists argues that modern history is determined by economics through the rise of classes (dialectical materialism).  Lenin in “State and Revolution” applied this theory internationally to explain imperialism (similar in some ways to Noam Chomsky’s explanations).  The Bolsheviks believed that the communists would triumph through an international revolution primarily in the modern capitalist states", for example, Germany.  After Rosa Luxembourg and her group were crushed in Germany following WWI, many Russians communists realized that they would get no help in developing an essentially backward county.  Trotsky still maintained the belief that communist revolution had to occur internationally, but Stalin wanted to focus on Russia.  Thus, Stalin became the typical dictator, living in constant paranoia, and the head of a bureaucracy and secret police, playing one group against the other, peasants versus factory workers," etc.<br><br>2.	Stephen speaks with the voice of the reasonable middle", but as Thucydides said in writing about Corcyra," those who argue for reason in troubled times are considered traitors by both sides.<br><br>3.	Minor prediction.  Russia and China will clash", perhaps go to war," particularly if Russia becomes more democratic and market oriented.<br><br>4.	Technology now changes the world so fast that futurists risk turning into historians.<br><br>Thank you.  William L. Ramseyer"