Hey - sorry for replying so late to this threat - , I thought if might interest you that Marx himself was actually fairly versed in Epicureanism. The subject of his doctor thesis implies that he was extremely educated about Epicurean physics and, by extension, ethics. So just wanted to let you know that there is a reason why these two are so similar :)

By the way, great blog post! It was very well-written. I enjoyed reading it!