The neoliberal contempt for human categories has become well ensconced in everyday life in the last three decades. Whatever their predicament, whatever their station in life, everyone is encouraged to think they, too, can be Metis, unperturbed (or ignorant) that their fate is to be consumed by Zeus. Time and again, the supposed success of some teen idol or hedge fund manager or sports star is said to illustrate the tired platitude that “you can be anything that you want to be, if you want it bad enough.” This presumes a self that can incorporate any attribute, take up any challenge, transcend any limitation, and embody any quality. There are few neoliberal tropes more cynical, or incantations more convenient. This catechism of permanent metamorphosis has spawned a number of cultural devices that structure everyday neoliberalism. Here we will merely touch upon two: the modern disappearance of economic class as a serious taxonomy, and the hollowing out of the notion of “risk” when elevated to a general imperative of agency.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 332