This provocation discusses two post-2008 cases of resilience discourse in applied performance contexts. The discussion of the first case focuses on how a variant of resilience discourse legitimises the restructuring of local public services and welfare by naturalising this process. This first discourse will be contrasted to an instance of resilience discourse produced by artists aligned to Left-libertarian social movements. Despite clear differences, I argue that the naturalising of social relations at work in this second discourse and case should also be problematised, if social art is to present an alternative to the status quo.