The second initiative, ab big public relations push for 1978, planned to coincide with the billboard invasion, was the creation of Socialist Man. A sorto of poor relative of Super-, Bat-, and Spiderman, Socialist Man was the ideological Frankenstein of the Party. He was the embodiment of everthing perfect in a good socialist. He was steadfast, had a spirit of solidarity, was a good father and respected the laws. One evening, Siri, Daeng and Civilai had even gone so far as to design him a costume; a green leotard to represent the young rice shoots, rubber boots to keep his feet dry, naturally, a red cape adorned with a hammer and sickle, and a scabbard for his hoe.

There was something sinister about this country. It wasn't a comic parody of a socialist state, it was a deadly serious parody. It was as if they believed that this was how it was supposed to look. They'd read the Communist Manifesto and missed the point. Just as Christian and Muslim extremists found hatred and vengeance that didn't exist in their respective manuals, these Red Khmer believed Marx and Lenin had called for the obliteration of personality and pleasure and free thought. Believed that blind allegiance was the only way to proliferate their doctrines. Civilai had never read it that way because that wasn't how it had been written.