Civilization has always demanded a body. Formerly, it lived in the shadow of temples and witnessed blood soaking its stone floor in the name of gods, harvests, wars, and survival. It invoked violence as sacred. Now, it trembles with horror at the thought of sacrifice in ritual and believes it is far from the barbarism of ancient times. Yet the cries have not ceased. They have merely been buried under factories, borders, prisons, battlefields, falling buildings and sterile discourse. A laborer drowns under concrete that is part of a city to which he will never belong. A girl relinquishes her hands to industry before her age of knowing exploitation arrives. A mother witnesses her family being consumed in war, leaving behind numbers of loss read aloud as quickly before dinner is served to the remainder. Entire groups of people starve softly while economies grow and markets boom and the government speaks clean-mouthed promises of progress. It is argued here that rather than eliminating it, modernity has merely hidden human sacrifice Altar was replaced by an institution. Ritual by administration. Violence by policy. Death became profitable. There exist those under the auspices of capitalism, nationalism and the state that are constantly deemed sacrifice able, allowing those remaining to live securely and without complicity. Using structural violence and expendability as theoretical lenses, this paper discusses how modern civilization maintained itself through orchestrated suffering by masking sacrifice behind legality, policy and modern advancement. Through an examination of law, power and the disposable bodies upon which our comfort is founded, it addresses the grim question of whether the world we live in is any less violent, or only less honest.