Responsibilized individuals remain disposable when economic exigencies require it

Evidence

This also means that when economic “reality” requires it, even the most thoroughly responsibilized individuals may be legitimately cast off from the ship. Human capital for itself bears the responsibility of enhancing and securing its future; it is expected to self-invest wisely and is condemned for dependency. However, human capital for the firm or the nation is bound to the project of the whole and is valued according to macroeconomic vicissitudes and exigencies. This means that neither its responsibility nor its fealty guarantees its survival. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 417

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The tension between hyper-responsibility and total expendability is a dense, generative paradox at the heart of neoliberal subjectivity — this resists one-sentence summary.
• XREF: connects to: Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods.; People are reduced to objects whether addressed as employees or consumers — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113; Natural persons become surplus population unless they pass as corporations — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 387 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods. #corroborates (0.85)
• People are reduced to objects whether addressed as employees or consumers #corroborates (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113
• Natural persons become surplus population unless they pass as corporations #corroborates (0.75) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 387
• Economic rationality reduces individuals to obstacles in the production process #corroborates (0.70)