Bataille admits rules outweigh

(John , The Political Implications of Sacrifice and Loss in the Thought of Georges Bataille http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p317285_index.html)

While it is certainly the case that Bataille’s position does require some sort of re- working of our practices (or perhaps more importantly, the way in which we understand those we currently have) in order to accommodate the experience of sacrificial loss, this does not necessarily entail a complete upheaval of society and politics. As disruptive as sacrifice may be to the stable and logical forms which tend to comprise profane existence, it does not seem to be the case that Bataille is recommending that we simply overturn all things profane. In fact, Bataille specifically argues against such action where, in Guilty, he says, Life is a result of disequilibrium and instability. Stable forms are needed to make it possible however….To shrink from fundamental stability isn’t less cowardly than to hesitate about shattering it. Perpetual instability is more boring than adhering strictly to a rule, and only what’s in existence can be made to come into disequilibrium, that is, to be sacrificed. The more equilibrium the object has, the more complete it is, and the greater the disequilibrium or sacrifice that can result (Bataille 1988b, 28-29). Perhaps the most important insight to take from this quote is that sacrifice (here emphasized as that which disrupts what is) depends upon the logical and stable forms that are marks of the profane world of work and utility. Because sacrifice might be said to represent a transgression of the norms of the profane world, it follows that these norms must exist in order for such a transgression to occur in the first place. While I have been emphasizing the importance for Bataille of sacrificial loss (and to the extent that it follows from it—disruption), in this passage he seems to be affording some sort of recognition to the importance of values like stability, that are associated not with the sacred but rather the profane.