ABSTRACT
In her book Undoing the Demos, Wendy Brown argues that neoliberalism possesses a sacrificial logic according to which each citizen is compelled to sacrifice his or her own labor, finances, and physical well-being, not for the common good, but rather for the sake of the economy. This chapter posits the figure of homo sacrificus as a theoretical model for examining the primordial logic of sacrifice that has typified human social and reproduction from its inception, a logic which is in many respects intensified under the conditions of neoliberal governmentality. In their respective theories of sacrifice, Walter Burkert and René Girard each emphasize the crucial role that the emergence of sacrificial rituals played in the evolution of human sociality. Likewise, in his own theory of sacrificial economization, A. Samuel Kimball argues that the practice of sacrificial economization is essential to human survival. While the imperative to sacrifice may be regarded as a transhistorical one, utilizing Kimball’s theory of sacrificial economization, this chapter examines how the sacrificial dynamics of human existence are in certain respects intensified and expanded through the neoliberal process of financialization. The unethical lending practices that ultimately precipitated the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, detailed in Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short, offer a crucial glimpse into the sacrificial logic of neoliberalism—the administrative environment of the banking and finance industry places a dual focus on radical compliance as well as financial incentivization to compel employees to engage in financial practices that were manifestly exploitative. Whereas the rituals of sacrifice elucidated by Burkert and Girard produce forms of social solidarity through the death of a surrogate victim that is at once marginal and yet proximate to a given community, the sacrificial logic of neoliberalism primarily serves to isolate individuals from forms of social and democratic solidarity while also coercing individuals to engage in sacrificial acts through a process of disciplinary incentivization that brackets ethical deliberation. In conclusion, this chapter argues that challenging the sacrificial logic of neoliberalism requires expressions of political community and cooperation that are not solely based on cultural, political, or ideological commonality, but rather on ontobiological mutuality, a form of cooperation which arises from an awareness of the sacrificial costs of existence.
