In early 1991, I received what can only be described as a fan letter. Most academicians, myself included, do not get fan mail. Indeed, most of us feel fortunate to have our work merit a review in some arcane scholarly journal. At any rate, this fan letter was doubly unusual in that it was postmarked South Africa. The letter's author was W. J. “Jimmy” Taylor, Deputy Postmaster General of the Republic of South Africa and head of the country's telecommunications monopoly. Mr. Taylor indicated that he had obtained a copy of my book, The Irony of Regulatory Reform: The Deregulation of American Telecommunications, through Oxford University Press's Johannesburg office, and was writing to commend my analysis of the communications revolution and the transformation in communications policy and regulation. Needless to say I was thrown for a loop. What did it mean that a high official of a state apparatus in one of the most repressive regimes in modern times thought highly of my scholarly work? Was there something in my ambivalent, if not skeptical, assessment of American deregulation that gave succor to authoritarian bureaucrats? Realizing I didn't know enough to address these worries adequately, I merely dashed off a thank you to the Deputy PMG, and not wanting to jeopardize any future contacts, said I would love to visit South Africa if and when democracy was put in place.