Even though I’m somewhat sympathetic to libertarian arguments, your main paragraph, “and thus quite natural to conclude that those values are, in and of themselves, the values worth fighting for.” sounds somewhat stretched, and I expect equally convincing paragraphs could be written in defense of government monopoly on everything, or of redistributive policies, or even of corporate ownership of the state. “those states with a greater focus on liberty tend to beat those with a lesser one” doesn’t seem that supported by History—the Soviet Union was pretty strong militarily and scientifically, and yeah, the US eventually had the first place alone, but it doesn’t seem that far fetched that China will eventually get the first place.
But more importantly, when you talk of “a more-than-minuscule threat of political violence in your area”, I think of the breakup of Yugoslavia, or maybe the LA riots, or the Chinese Cultural Revolution—and in those cases I don’t see where some abstract tough about “freedom” or “justice” is going to be of any help. So I’m not really sure of what you’re thinking of when you talk about “political violence”.
Even though I’m somewhat sympathetic to libertarian arguments, your main paragraph, “and thus quite natural to conclude that those values are, in and of themselves, the values worth fighting for.” sounds somewhat stretched, and I expect equally convincing paragraphs could be written in defense of government monopoly on everything, or of redistributive policies, or even of corporate ownership of the state. “those states with a greater focus on liberty tend to beat those with a lesser one” doesn’t seem that supported by History—the Soviet Union was pretty strong militarily and scientifically, and yeah, the US eventually had the first place alone, but it doesn’t seem that far fetched that China will eventually get the first place.
But more importantly, when you talk of “a more-than-minuscule threat of political violence in your area”, I think of the breakup of Yugoslavia, or maybe the LA riots, or the Chinese Cultural Revolution—and in those cases I don’t see where some abstract tough about “freedom” or “justice” is going to be of any help. So I’m not really sure of what you’re thinking of when you talk about “political violence”.