Western Standard - Why Gen Z is craving family, community and tradition again

00:00:00.000 said it was an interesting read and uh from a younger person and you know this is somebody like

00:00:05.760 i said we're going to be leaving this country to him and he's got concerns and he's written about

00:00:10.000 them at length and i found it uh interesting and a bit dark though uh and again the title of his

00:00:15.840 book says it you know anti-civilization the collapse of society and uh perhaps you'll correct

00:00:20.800 me i'm awful with french names uh etienne alexander barregard thank you very much for uh

00:00:27.520 sharing the book with us and joining us today oh my pleasure to be here and you got the name right

00:00:32.400 oh okay well great i'd just like to apologize in advance because i'm i'm afraid i can be awful with

00:00:36.880 those at times um so i mean getting right to the the to the meat of the issue uh your book has kind

00:00:45.200 of a very negative premise to kind of begin with with where things have devolved towards and and

00:00:49.440 how they're looking though you get a little more solution based farther up but what inspired you

00:00:53.920 to write this uh in the first place well i think it's really about what what kind of society we're

00:01:02.240 we're living in today and especially from a younger perspective you said it i i think it's

00:01:06.720 certainly a part of the diagnosis the fact that i'm myself a member of generation z uh 25 i was

00:01:13.040 born in 2000 and now uh like many people who are starting to have their political uh voices heard

00:01:20.000 i'm just growing up in this in the society where you kind of feel like all these

00:01:28.080 all these cultural moral and traditional norms that used to guide our lives guide our

00:01:34.960 our social lives together are weaker and weaker than ever and so it's really kind of uh it's

00:01:41.920 really uh an essay on what happens when individual uh individualism uh goes too far essentially

00:01:49.760 and uh about the necessary return to a kind of balance between these uh these collective uh

00:01:58.000 these collective roots that we need to to find again yes so we're seeing a trend there's no

00:02:03.440 doubt about it that you've identified of social introversion almost you mentioned that on people

00:02:08.320 are having smaller social circles fewer friends they don't have the networks they used to and

00:02:12.800 it's coming with a cultural cost but how much of this i guess can be attributed say to the the

00:02:19.280 the advent of social media that didn't exist as well i mean i'm certain there's a number of

00:02:22.880 factors but people are are retreating inwards uh and to their phones and computers rather than

00:02:28.320 meeting face to face i think you mentioned that with people with phone calls even things like that

00:02:32.880 uh so is it a social thing or is it a technological thing well i i think it's really always a

00:02:39.120 multi-factor uh phenomenon right but when you look at uh social withdrawal if you want to

00:02:45.040 say it like this uh social scientists like robert putnam have been warning us about this ever since

00:02:51.040 uh the 2000s so way before uh the smartphones as we know them uh were there uh but this kind of

00:02:58.400 this kind of withdrawal really from clubs association smaller families to maybe a devaluing

00:03:05.520 of tradition and a certain vision of the nation it's really it's a global phenomenon that we've

00:03:10.640 seen for for about 50 years now and so it certainly is a wider thing and although i

00:03:16.640 suppose you could say that technology is is certainly a part of it but isn't technology

00:03:21.920 always the reflection of a culture because only a certain kind of culture could give you

00:03:27.440 this kind of technological innovation that kind of pushed it further so to me it's it's more

00:03:31.840 complicated than just saying it's the phones like there's an ideological component to it it's a

00:03:36.320 different vision of how we see the individual related to the wider community and the wider

00:03:41.760 institutions that shape us yeah and then you you mentioned the individualism and that sounds again

00:03:47.120 i mean i i kind of attribute the war your definition though is into an introversion

00:03:50.880 a bit of a trend i i see though is people also they may not be going out they may not be socially

00:03:56.000 expanding their networks, but there's more of a dependency and expectation for government to fix

00:04:01.800 everything around them or to take care of things for them. Like the kind of individualism and the

00:04:07.160 libertarian point of view that I held traditionally as the older guy, though, saw that as more, maybe

00:04:11.740 you might disconnect from society, but you also want to disconnect from the state. And I'm not

00:04:15.040 seeing perhaps that, that tendency to leave the state blanket. Oh, that is true, because like,

00:04:22.780 objectively the state has gotten bigger in the last 50 years so i couldn't argue that this has

00:04:27.020 retreated that's for sure but what an interesting trend too is that the weaker our actual communities

00:04:33.900 and families become the more demand there is for state intervention so it's not always just a

00:04:39.900 binary individual or state often when you have a weakened community and a weakened social fabric

00:04:46.220 you there are still some needs that are going to be uh they're going to have to be taken care of

00:04:50.780 and often it's a state that is going to step in but it's it's really more of a philosophical book

00:04:56.940 i would say it's not a very policy centered book although i do a lot of policy work at cartis

00:05:01.180 obviously as a think tank researcher but it there is really something to be said about how we see

00:05:07.100 the individual related to uh community and that's that really is the core argument and i i'm sure

00:05:12.140 you've seen it like what what is freedom right is freedom the pursuit of higher goods or is it just

00:05:19.180 not to be interfered with and this second definition which i do not think is right and

00:05:25.500 which i criticize in the book uh is shared by some on the libertarian right and if i want to be fair

00:05:30.460 i kind of have to critique it too of course everybody's open to critique it and i mean

00:05:36.300 something we're hearing from most i think political commentators or people looking at

00:05:40.220 the philosophy we've seen a dramatic change in the family unit particularly in the western world we

00:05:45.980 We don't have those connections.

00:05:47.160 The kids are expected to be out of the house

00:05:49.100 on their own when they're 18.

00:05:50.300 We have a lot of broken families, unfortunately,

00:05:52.880 divorce is, you know, higher than ever.

00:05:56.420 And we don't see extended family groups staying

00:05:59.860 in communication with each other like they used to.

00:06:02.720 That's definitely, it must be a part of this trend,

00:06:06.620 but I mean, how could we change that?

00:06:09.460 Yeah, that's always, it's always a question, right?

00:06:11.380 Because doing the diagnosis is,

00:06:13.300 I don't want to say the easy part,

00:06:14.860 but you have to get the problem right before you, you go for solutions.

00:06:18.820 But I think that there's always a policy element to it, but there's also just like

00:06:24.580 an individual and also a collective cultural vision of what the individual

00:06:29.140 is related to the family.

00:06:30.700 And I think this is one of the most interesting areas where it kind of

00:06:33.620 manifests because especially when you're my age, you grew up in the, in an era

00:06:38.780 where it's all about autonomy, right?

00:06:41.620 It's always like, oh, how free are you as an individual and watch out if you rely too much on someone else, whether it's your family or whether it's your romantic partner.

00:06:54.000 Are you going to lose out of this as an autonomous atom?

00:06:59.180 But to some extent, we have to go beyond this and just recognize and it's always been the case in human history before that being a part of an institution, whether it's a family or nation or community, it helps us grow.

00:07:11.620 we change it and it changes us. And it's never just a zero-sum game between the individual and

00:07:16.360 the institution, whether it's the family or another institution. But I feel that today,

00:07:21.040 our treatment, whether it's in the media, in the academia, or just the broader vision that we have

00:07:26.260 in the family today, is just a vessel that has to be in pursuit of our individual aspirations.

00:07:31.660 But from the moment it contradicts it, then it becomes harder to defend. But that is fundamentally

00:07:36.700 a misunderstanding of what a family is or should be right yeah well and the north american or

00:07:44.420 perhaps even a bit of european culture has become different like i use an anecdotal thing i walk to

00:07:49.560 the office uh downtown to save money on parking i go through a pretty rough part of town there's a

00:07:54.040 lot of people in terrible condition they're addicted uh they're homeless uh i mean there's

00:08:00.520 a solid pattern that just about everybody i see on the street tends to be either unfortunately

00:08:04.440 indigenous black or white we have a high indian population a higher population of east asian 1.00

00:08:13.160 individuals and you never see them in that condition now they're not immune to addiction 1.00

00:08:18.520 and mental health issues and challenges but somehow their networks keep their their their

00:08:23.880 families from ending up on the streets like is there stuff we could learn from other cultures

00:08:27.480 while we're uh adopting things because it seems to me that that some seem to be avoiding some of

00:08:31.960 the fallout absolutely absolutely i really believe there is there is an indian asian difference if

00:08:39.160 you can if you can see and you know many books on family for example i'm thinking of brad wilcox from

00:08:45.880 institute for family studies yeah he says that there is like a very important statistical

00:08:51.080 difference in like the rate of being and staying married if you are from an asian background

00:08:55.320 or if you just look at the treatment of parents and grandparents like the fact that it's more

00:09:01.480 culturally accepted than normal to kind of stay with your parents at home have them when they're

00:09:06.600 older versus just parking them in a care home and i think yes there is maybe a more holistic

00:09:12.440 approach to the family that we could learn from today because you know this the whole question of

00:09:17.000 care homes is so interesting because it is like the quintessential example of what happens when

00:09:22.280 individualism drives state spending up because especially when you have a population that is

00:09:29.960 growing older all these questions we have to ask today and maybe yes there is there is a more place

00:09:35.240 that the family could take in this so that we don't just offload all of our care duties to the

00:09:39.960 state so you talked about perhaps things though being ripe for return the term you used as a

00:09:45.800 cultural normalcy uh what normalcy do you mean then yeah that's a good question because another

00:09:52.840 of the big points of the book is about our vision of democracy when you look just at the beginning

00:09:58.280 of the 20th century the vision that we used to have in the west of the common man just the average

00:10:03.560 joe the average citizen was very different than uh it is today uh you look at uh the working class

00:10:10.200 for example was very valued in part due to the marxist left we have to give it to them they

00:10:14.280 they valued the majority in this sense and thought that they were wise and deserving

00:10:18.840 and when you look especially on the progressive side the vision of the majority ever since we've

00:10:24.360 shifted to more identity-based or cultural conflicts has changed dramatically because now

00:10:30.680 when you talk about the majority and and just democratic vote it's it's kind of supposed to be

00:10:37.080 either evil or oppressive or something that we should reign in instead of reflecting but we're

00:10:42.680 still in the democracy so the goal is still to have the majority voice heard right but in a country

00:10:47.880 like canada obviously you have the supreme court and i think that the the rule of judges that we

00:10:52.760 we see now is also an expression of the lack of confidence that much of our elites now have

00:10:58.960 with the majority. And so if I'm talking about a return to normalcy, it's also of, again, the way

00:11:05.620 that we see the individual and link to the collective and how in the democracy, you have to

00:11:10.800 have a little bit of respect for the nation, for the majority. Otherwise, you just lose the

00:11:18.220 democratic ethos that really allowed us to have a flourishing society where most citizens were

00:11:24.060 respected and felt they were part of something so being part of something and i'm i am quite curious

00:11:30.060 is that you know you are of quite a different generation than my own and and uh is you know

00:11:35.580 things go cyclical and there can be a bounce things can come back you mentioned clubs organizations

00:11:40.300 i i saw a documentary a little while ago where they're really in decline they used to be huge

00:11:44.940 in the 50s 60s people took part in just amateur sports or a chess club or a book club or just

00:11:50.080 something that got them out of the house and around other people do you think perhaps there

00:11:54.220 could be a resurgence of that like we're coming into this world of again just uh being in our

00:11:59.760 houses far too much but maybe it would turn around we could see a trend where people realize they

00:12:03.960 have to get out and socialize yeah i mean i would love it and as you mentioned these things are

00:12:10.820 extremely cyclical. And, you know, in the conclusion of the book, I really talk about

00:12:15.620 Generation Z's experience of the world. And like I mentioned previously, I think that when you grow

00:12:21.000 up in a desocialized world, to say it this way, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to describe

00:12:26.860 our world today as desocialized. You crave what you don't have. And whenever I talk to people my

00:12:34.180 age, people who are in their 20s, whether they're intellectuals or not, when you talk about this

00:12:39.340 kind of disillusion with what Bauman calls liquid modernity. This idea that we've kind of lost our

00:12:45.320 collective compass, our sense of cohesion, and that we kind of lack guiding principles like we used

00:12:50.840 to have. This is really pretty much of a consensus, even when you're on the left and when you're

00:12:57.540 obviously when you're on the right and you're in your 20s. But it is something that people might

00:13:02.200 try to tackle from different angles. But I do think it is the central malaise of our era and

00:13:08.380 that some things you gotta give.

00:13:09.960 So it has obviously ideological and political answers,

00:13:12.860 but it also has to come with a more vibrant civil society.

00:13:15.920 That's for sure.

00:13:16.940 Yeah, well, and your book has a nihilistic flavor

00:13:20.200 to it in a sense, but as you said,

00:13:23.100 you have to identify the problems

00:13:24.280 before you can move towards a solution

00:13:25.920 and it's philosophically based.

00:13:27.760 I really appreciated that because there's a big transition

00:13:31.900 in the world happening, obviously, and a big change,

00:13:34.000 and you and your generation are gonna have to deal with it

00:13:36.440 whilst I'm probably sitting in a retirement home

00:13:38.480 because I'm gonna be dependent on the state

00:13:41.180 or whatnot at the end of things as well.

00:13:43.560 So, I mean, I appreciate you sharing that

00:13:46.320 and putting those thoughts together.

00:13:48.000 You're involved as well in some writing

00:13:52.200 from a conservative perspective in Quebec.

00:13:54.020 Before I let you go, where can people find more of your work

00:13:56.080 and what you're up to?

00:13:57.660 Oh, people can follow me on Twitter at EA Beauregard,

00:14:01.680 on Facebook and yeah, just in Quebec media.

00:14:05.640 I don't know if your listeners are fans of France Quebec Media, but you can find me there.

00:14:10.780 I also write in France in the Journal du Dimanche and in Without Diminishment in English for a Canadian public.

00:14:17.300 Great. And here's what your book looks like there, a copy of it.

00:14:20.380 Where can people find themselves a copy to grab one for themselves?

00:14:23.440 Oh, anywhere, really. It's on sale on Amazon, but also at Indigo and pretty much anywhere where good books are sold.

00:14:30.600 All right. Well, excellent.

00:14:31.680 thank you very much for taking some time to join us older westerners out here and share your

00:14:36.080 thoughts on it and i just appreciate the forward thinking thanks a lot for having me all right

00:14:42.000 I hope we can talk again soon.

Western Standard - September 09, 2026

Why Gen Z is craving family, community and tradition again

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