Not really the point I was trying to make, but yes - I agree with your post.
Sorry. Sometimes I talk funny.
In 1989, Boris Yeltsin made an unscheduled stop at a Randall's Super Market and they gave him a free cheese sample. It was a struggle for the Politburo to get foreign cheeses but here it was regular Americans being offered a sample of cheese so that one cheese vendor could convince people to buy his brand out of a selection of hundreds of available cheeses.
He realized then that Soviet propaganda was all lies. The things he had believed in all his life were false and there was indeed a better way.
The Soviet Union collapsed when the leaders lost faith. They had put their hopes in a fantasy and deluded themselves into thinking that they had courage when all they really had was obedience. That ended the Soviet Union and the Cold War.
The formula for courage is simple.
"Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage." -Thucydides
A free market throws out un-disciplined people. It rewards those who have self respect and courage. Socialism does the opposite.
The Cold War was not won by escalating arms as much as it was won by the loss of faith in an ideology.
If someone is afraid, the solution is not to disarm. The solution is to teach them how to fight so they are no longer afraid. Because in learning how to fight, you must overcome your own fear, control your own anger and master your own mind. This eliminates the ideology of failure and fear. Indeed. There is a better way.
It's about weapons as much as it was about a grocery store.