Insurance historically functions as collective imagined solidarity, not individual self-interest.

Evidence

Insurance was feared and rejected by Calvinists as morally corrupt because of its interference with Providence. More boldly, Islamic law stressed the important social function of insurance as a collective (rather than simply bilateral) contract, resting on the idea of an imagined collectivity that is willing to share risks as well as responsibilities … Somewhat counterintuitively, insurance has much less to do with individual self-interest than with complex and collective political imaginings, which include the development of social solidarity. Solidarity itself can be seen as the prevention of social insecurity by means of insurance—forming what conservative historian François Ewald (1986) has called sociétés assurancielles. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 273

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s argument that homo speculans encompasses collective, not just individualistic, logics — the left reclaims speculative imagination partly through insurance-as-solidarity. — connects to: Speculation and insurance jointly define community boundaries that ignore traditional class lines. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 555; Life insurance gained legitimacy by framing itself as family care rather than death gambling — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 355
• ADDENDUM: The collective mutuality that threatened family and religion as pillars of risk-bearing resonates with the sacrifice article’s treatment of institutions that stabilize society by shouldering burdens.