hammer and sickle 復習

アメリカ人宇宙飛行士のジョン・グレンさんが亡くなりました。彼は，初めて地球を周回する軌道の飛行をし，人類史上最高齢の７７歳で宇宙飛行をしたことでも知られています。

The otherworldly spirit of John Glenn

Homer Hickam is the author of “Rocket Boys” and “Carrying Albert Home.”

We’ve lost the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts, the prodigious test pilots chosen to be the first Americans to fly into space. In the 1960s, nearly every American youth could list them: Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper and Slayton. Only Gus Grissom would die with his spacesuit on (during the Apollo program), but all were heroically willing to go into the unknown — not for themselves, not for scientific purposes, but for us, the American people, made fearful by a strutting Soviet Union not only armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons but also clearly intent on carrying its hammer-and-sickle philosophy to the moon and beyond. It was a scary time for Americans, but the Mercury men, with their swagger and big grins, projected a confidence that we could share. We reveled in their boldness, not to mention (especially for us boys) their fondness for gorgeous women, hot cars and speed.

以下省略

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-otherworldly-spirit-of-john-glenn/2016/12/08/084a2e26-bd95-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.d714fd256171

今回取り上げる表現は，“hammer and sickle”です。直訳すると，「槌と鎌」という意味ですが，どのような意味があるのでしょうか。そこで，調べてみると，「ソ連邦の国章」，「労働者と農民の象徴」といった語義がありました（コトバンク）。さらに，Merriam-Websterを引いてみると，“an emblem consisting of a crossed hammer and sickle used especially as a symbol of Soviet Communism”と定義されていました。

ここでは，ハイフンがあるため，形容詞として用いられています。使われている部分を見ていくと，“hammer-and-sickle philosophy”で「共産主義」となるのではないでしょうか。