Anti-Civilization: The Collapse of Society & the Case for the Common Good

What if Generation Z could save the West?

In Anti-Civilization, Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard delivers a stark diagnosis: the dismantling of the norms that once shaped Western civilization has plunged society into a profound crisis, eroding the shared reference points that sustained it throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

Runaway individualism, he argues, has fostered isolation and identity-based tensions, dissolving the social contract and replacing it with a clash of impulses and competing subjectivities. As heirs to this culture of deconstruction―and deprived of stable cultural and moral anchors―Generation Z is living through the full consequences of this illusory freedom, a pseudo-liberation that leads not to fulfillment but to alienation.

Yet, Beauregard contends, young people are not merely victims of this crisis; they are its potential remedy. Precisely because they have been denied a coherent inheritance, they are uniquely positioned to recognize its value. While populism protests the excesses of progressivism, it risks deepening Western nihilism rather than overcoming it. Only a conservative renewal―rooted in tradition, culture, and the common good―can bring the era of deconstruction to a close and rebuild the social bonds between citizens and across generations.

ÉTIENNE-ALEXANDRE BEAUREGARD is a prominent voice in Quebec’s emerging national-conservative movement. With a background in political philosophy and public administration, his work has been published Quebec and France, in outlets such as Le Figaro, Le Point, Le Devoir, and La Presse.

He is the author of three acclaimed books of political thought. In Le Schisme identitaire (Boréal, 2022), he examines Quebec’s culture wars over language, secularism, and immigration. Le Retour des Bleus (Liber, 2024) explores the intellectual roots of Quebec nationalism and its ties to conservatism. In Anti-Civilization, he addresses the crisis of social cohesion in the West and the rise of conservatism among Generation Z.

From 2022 to 2025, he served as a speechwriter and strategic planning adviser to the premier of Quebec. He is currently a researcher at Cardus, a Canadian public policy think tank. He is also a contributing editor of Without Dimishment, a leading voice of Canada's new right.