This essay was originally composed in May, 2025.

The proper study of the political philosopher is not politics, but polity. Our ways of being in community are at once universal and confined, contingent upon particular historical and cultural conditions and timelessly imbued with an eternal legitimacy. Provided that the foundation is secure, the habitat of political animals will endure numerous alterations, some better and some worse, easily undone or practically impossible to remove. But alas, the foundation has crumbled away, and we dwell not in the proverbial house of cards, but in the wrecked ruins of a civilization far older than our own, tottering above and about us as stone by stone slips into the unrelenting sea.