Western societies face a growing crisis with a gradual waning of trust, social cohesion, and shared norms. But is something deeper happening to the cultural foundations that make free societies possible? As these norms weaken, individual desires are increasingly placed above social obligations while common identities are deconstructed and traditional sources of authority are treated as oppressive.
Quebec political thinker and author Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard describes this process as “anti-civilisation”, a gradual erosion of the social and cultural capital that makes higher-order cooperation and a healthy society possible. The result is a greater atomization of society, declining trust in institutions, cultural fragmentation, and growing conflict between elites and ordinary citizens.
Can this process be reversed? Beauregard proposes a new “fusionism” and a genuine political centre grounded in the nation and the social bonds that hold it together.