Squid Game: The Last Hope or a Prolonged Misery [Spoiler-Free]

If even elementary school kids are talking about it, you should already finish watching the latest yet another show on how dark society becomes, Squid Game(2021).

Before watching Squid Game, here's a spoiler-free plot overview. An unknown organization/company invites people who are in desperate need to play children's games to win money. The rules are simple. You agree to participate and you can't quit unless half of the players voted the game out. It's actually quite fair.

After "Battle Royale(2000)", "The Hunger Games(2008)", and "Parasite(2019)", do we just end up imagining what if it were us in the scenario? While that isn't so bad, quite fun actually, it's merely on the surface level. The games are the result of a series of decision-making, and they aren't meant to match perfectly to our situations. For instance, being in a never-ending circular dept, having no money for medical support, gambling...etc., are not the start of our lives. They are the results of poor judgments, bad calls, but rarely just unlucky.

We live in a time when money seems to be the key to a functional life. Everything costs. To make things cost more, we add made-up values. To make people buy more, we create credits and end up in debt. Money isn't real anymore; it's just numbers on the screen. Do we buy to own or do we buy to get owned? You could be 100 million dollars in debt but the world goes on just the same. As strange as it sounds, when everyone borrows and spends what they don't have, they will ask you to do the same.

Let's take a step back. How did people live before credits? You know, getting paid for work, paying for food, being a house owner. It sounds... boring, doesn't it? Here's an idea, boring is good. Boring has never hurt anyone if we think about it. What's wrong with working 5 days a week for 20 years and then retire? Times have changed, and we're all encouraged to "do anything you want" and "be anyone you want", but what do we want to do and who do we want to be? That's the real question. How do we want to live?

Society is at this point where "nothing makes us happy enough". The reason is more than clear... we are too much informed! Some people say "happiness is by comparison". Anyone poorer than us would remind us how privileged we are, except that this is wrong from the beginning. The reason we aren't happy is precisely that we compare. While seeing poor people makes us feel a sense of relief, we're also being seen as poor in the eyes of others. What's worse, we can also see those above our levels thanks to the blooming of social media. Once you get into the race of who's happier, it's almost impossible to get out and the result is destined, you lose. It's the same with grades in schools but that's not our topic this time.

"I will be happy after I retire."

"I will be happy after I buy a house."

"I will be happy after..."

Believe it when you see this. You won't be happy after anything. Being happy is a choice, a conscious one. It's about feeling for the way you live instead of how you tried to live the lives of others. It's nothing fancy nor philosophical.

Back to Squid Game, as every chosen character is there based on the belief that upon receiving the grand prize, they'd get a second chance in life, to finally have control, or be "normal". They are convinced that even if it's hell in the games, it's still hell out there. At least the games offer a chance and that's all they need. Does it? Yes, it's at least a chance and it's worth a shot if you're the last of your kind, no family, no friends, no one. The game designer isn't a celestial. It's just another group of humans on top of the food chain, making sure fewer and fewer people get where they are.

Being hopeless will end all motives. Being given a false opportunity to hope, will drive a person to act insanely. That's what the game is about, a game for the poor, the desperate, and the dumb. It's designed to make you think you can win. However, similar to gambling, the house always wins. You may have won money; they won your life. A gambler after clearing his/her debt will likely be in debt again because that's just what they do. That's why we're not helping by paying for them; we help by giving them work so they can pay for it themselves.

So what's it going to be? Would you accept the invitation of your lifetime, money over your life, or is there another way out of your misery?

#selfreflect