Squid Game performs on the just about comical means folks should imagine in their very own means to outlive and be the chosen victor.
The cruelty and violence of the sport itself fuels gamers’ virtually transcendental perception that they’re destined to be the one winners of the video games. These needs, nevertheless, conflict with the gamers’ human core.
Camaraderie develops as gamers work collectively and household bonds, previous friendships, shared experiences, compassion and spirituality all have a transparent presence within the present. But they’re finally overshadowed by the inflexible logic of the general sport.
The most scandalous current instance of such conduct is the American financier Bernie Madoff who ruthlessly defrauded household and kin within the Jewish group for his private acquire.
“Millionaires Temporarily Embarrassed”
Some critics have complained that the second season is just too centered on the lives of the gamers, with the precise video games not beginning till episode 4.
However, this modification arguably makes the connection between gamers’ actual lives and video games way more specific. In flip, it makes this system’s critique of capitalism much more pronounced.
While the high-stakes video games are undoubtedly the sequence’ primary attraction, the sequence’ reputation nonetheless has so much to do with its inherent message, which turns into way more pronounced within the second season. People can establish with characters who danger their survival for the promise of heroically gaining one other lease on life in opposition to all odds.
As the American author John Steinbeck as soon as mentioned, many middle- and working-class Americans contemplate themselves “briefly embarrassed capitalists.” This mentality embodies tireless participation in a capitalist system that provides solely a slim likelihood of success.
This dynamic is illustrated in Squid Game Season 2, which explores how people rationalize their participation in a sport that will in any other case go in opposition to their most elementary human impulses.
The lyrics to Bertold Brecht’s satirical track March of the Calves come to thoughts: “Following the drum / The calves trot / The pores and skin for the drum / They hand themselves over.”
It’s a sobering metaphor for the way in which the promise of success typically blinds us to the non-public sacrifice we’d pay to attain it.
Dirk Matten is a professor of sustainability and the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility on the Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada. This remark appeared for the first time within the dialog.
