Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The specter of tossing hooded Communists out of helicopters into the sea is an enduring one. First practiced by France during the Malagasy Uprising, then the “Dirty War” in Argentina, and the Bougainville Civil War in Papua New Guinea. But “death flights” really entered the public consciousness as a staple of the Chilean regime of Augusto Pinochet. Helicopters have been associated with dictators ever since. What’s most notable is that it appears to have been effective. In most cases, Communist take-overs are successful because their most fervent supporters are fully committed to the ideology, and there is an immense army of the disaffected who will join the ranks given the chance. Sometimes the takeovers involve violence but in the modern era, democracy is enough: egalitarians always eventually get a voting majority because the allure of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need,” causes the majority of people to immediately improve their lives even though it’s a totally bankrupt concept in the long run. With that kind of support working against free enterprise, it’s remarkable the U.S. hadn’t turned Communist before. In fact, it was close a couple times but greed won out over resentment. However, the threat of socialism is stronger now: Marxism or Fascism seems to be the world’s future. There are people, mostly Republicans, who still think America can be recovered, but democracy is the culprit not the solution: helicopters is seemingly all that works.