[Willow, narrator] Director of the popular Netflix series Squid Game Hwang Dong Hyuk
has said he hopes the series has viewers asking themselves
"Why do we risk our lives to compete with each other? Where did the competition begin and where is it going?"
It's an interesting question given the widely held belief of meritocracy as an ideal.
Meritocracy is the idea that outcomes should largely be determined by effort and skill.
Sure, there may still be some luck involved, but if everyone has exactly the same opportunities
then we will get the most fair outcomes possible.
It's an attractive idea because it suggests as long as you put in enough effort, you will probably be successful.
While this belief is held across the world nowhere claims to value it more than the United States,
where it's better known as the American Dream. While the American Dream often receives criticism
[George Carlin] It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it
[Willow] Especially as inequality continues to rise
it's still an accepted ideal to this day by many at least in principle.
Even progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders have argued it's something to strive for
and that it's only our lack of equal opportunities that has turned the American Dream into a nightmare.
This is where most people would agree meritocracy is flawed.
That in practice it's an impossible ideal to live up to because there are too many variables to account for
like biases and historical context to ever truly level the playing field.
Those running the mysterious competition in Squid Game acknowledge that the world is unfair
and want to give a second chance to hundreds of players who have accumulated massive debt.
Claiming to offer true equality with a chance to win millions of dollars by playing simple children's games.
[humorous] With just a small catch that if you're eliminated you lose your life.
So let's look at what Squid Game has to say
about our willingness to risk our lives competing with one another.
Is Meritocracy an ideal we should strive for?
Or would we be better off putting this idea out of its misery?
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And of course spoilers ahead for Squid Game.
[piano music starts]
Squid Game follows Seong Gi-hun, a man in his 40s who is at rock bottom after having been laid off,
getting divorced and is still struggling with a gambling addiction
that has led to massive debt with loan sharks. Living with his mother, they both struggle to make ends meet.
His mother needs to work on her feet each day for long hours and cannot afford
to have her diabetes treated even though she is told her feet will need to be amputated if nothing is done.
Not sure what else to do Gi-hun begs his ex-wife for money to help pay for the medical expenses.
He is offered the money on one condition. That he stops coming to visit his daughter and just goes away.
Even arguing it will be easier for his daughter
since they plan to move away to the United States within the year and Gi-hun would be unable to afford visiting her anyhow.
A completely defeated Gi-hun while waiting at a train station is then challenged
to a game for money by a well-dressed man
After the game, Gi-hun is given a card inviting him to play games with higher stakes.
Desperate for money, Gi-hun accepts and is taken while unconscious to an unknown location
where he wakes up to find 455 other players
Before playing they must all sign a player consent form which states:
they cannot stop playing, that refusing to play will get them eliminated
and the games may only be stopped if a majority of the players agree
The idea being that the games are fair so long as everyone has chosen to participate using their free will
Of course this ignores the context in which the players give their consent.
They are all struggling to survive with massive debt. What are their alternatives?
If Gi-hun doesn't play he will likely never see his daughter again once her family moves and his mother could die
The contest is unable to live up to its standards of creating a fair playing ground
in other ways as well Even with their extreme secrecy and security,
workers end up feeding information to one of the players giving him an unfair advantage
And while the competition uses simple children's games, making them easy to learn in case a player has no experience with them.
Some players are still at a disadvantage for no fault of their own.
A huge struggle I've had being disabled has been learning to accept there will be things I cannot do
no matter how simple they seem to someone else
It may not be surprising a game that is willing to murder people isn't fair but this highlights
our diversity is one reason a meritocracy is impossible to ever truly accomplish
This also begs an important question What is worthy of merit and who gets to decide that?
[emotional piano music begins]
In Squid Game we see women players are regularly put in worse positions than the men
While strength is a concern in games like Tug of War
they are often shunned just on the chance that strength MIGHT be important in an upcoming game
since players must choose their teams before knowing what the next game will be
Player 1 is left out due to his age and mental disability.
And even Player 199 is suggested to hide his injured hand because it may appear as a weakness,
despite having proved he is one of the strongest people there
Squid Game shows us this is the result of being put into competition with others for our very lives
That in our desperation to survive we will be forced to decide who is valuable or not
At one point the players are even purposely instigated into attacking each other
resulting in 27 people being killed
As the bodies are counted they get to watch that sweet sweet cash prize money rain down from above.
[casino machine winning music]
Literally placing a price tag on each person and encouraging everyone to be viewed through a cost-benefit analysis
This works out well for extremely selfish players like Deok-su
who has lived a cut throat life among gangs No relationship is sacred to him
and he is even willing to let everyone die if the alternative means any risk to himself
But even people who try to be decent are pushed to be selfish
The perfect example of this is during the 4th game where everyone is told to pick a partner presumably to work as a team
but instead the game is a duel played with marbles One wins and goes on, the other player dies
Even Gi-hun is willing to take advantage of Player 1
An old disabled man who Gi-hun has helped several times But because the game pits them against each other
Gi-hun is forced to make a choice between his life and Player 1's
He decides his own life is more valuable and tries to justify it by telling himself the old man doesn't have long left to live anyhow
And while this is an extreme situation,
Squid Game shows this dynamic is at play in everyday life as well
Sang-woo is referred to by Gi-hun as a prodigy of their town
A successful business man that went to a top notch business school
While Sang-woo will show kindness while it has no real impact on himself he will gladly do whatever it takes to win
Regularly lying to and cheating even his friends putting them in danger
He's not really playing any differently than the more openly cutthroat Deok-su Sang-woo just knows to be more discrete about it
But when put in a situation where he cannot keep a low profile he will kill someone openly to progress
and seems to remain guilt-free as he rationalizes every outcome
Sang-woo even gets so frustrated at the others not being able to see this logic
that he yells at Player 69 who is distraught at having just lost his wife
He had been paired with his wife for the marble game Instead of offering any empathy, Sang-woo chides him
for wanting to stop playing instead of continuing on to make something of his wife's death
The show seems to suggest that Sang-woo has gotten this mindset from business school
He's learned how to be what is considered successful
After all, if you have a job that makes more money then in a meritocracy that must mean you are more successful
[sarcastically] Sorry Teachers, I guess you don't put enough effort in Should have become a Wall Street gambler
Squid Game also shows us that believing in meritocracy will convince us we have earned our success on our own
Ignoring all the other factors that contributed to where we are now
We see this when Gi-hun argues with Sang-woo
Gi-hun questions Sang-woo for killing a player
Arguing that they would not have gotten so far without that player's help
Sang-woo argues he owes the man nothing and that he's gotten this far because he's playing to win
That he just makes the difficult decisions someone like Gi-hun doesn't want to
Sang-woo even goes so far as to tell Gi-hun his lower class life is what Gi-hun deserves
for questioning how things are all the time
Gi-hun pokes a hole in this meritocratic argument showing it just defends the status quo
because if Sang-woo is right then why is a high-class businessman like himself in here with the rest of them?
Sang-woo sees everyone as a tool to be used
while Gi-hun recognizes he would not still be alive without all the help he's gotten along the way
They represent competition and community respectively
[peaceful piano music begins]
Instead of living in competition with each other
we could instead be collaborating for a common good
We even see moments of this alternative during Squid Game In the tug of war game we see teamwork win over pure strength
Player 1 is saved in the 2nd game by watching Gi-hun's solution
And in preparation for another night of violence after the previous night of murders,
Gi-hun and others work together to create barricades and take shifts at night to watch out for each other
This team effort is shown in contrast to the fearful environment Deok-su fosters
Where everyone is only looking out for themselves
Alfie Kohn, a writer and lecturer in the areas of education, parenting, and human behavior
writes that studies don't support our culture's obsession with competition at all
Not only is competition less effective than collaboration
but it also comes with a lot of negative effects according to research:
Competition creates anxiety
even when the stakes are low
the pressure of having to defeat others or the risk of being defeated inhibits our performance
Competitors can't exchange ideas or share skills
If Gi-hun had been more worried about the competition
he would have likely tried to hide his solution in the honeycomb game like we saw other players do
And competition is a distraction rather than a motivator
While research shows competition on a temporary basis can SOMETIMES be a motivator for simple, rote tasks
it actually harms quality in higher level problem-solving and creativity.
In his article titled 'No Contest' Alfie Kohn says:
"The foundation of cooperation is what social scientists call 'positive interdependence':
a cooperative group sinks or swims together
In practice, that means all group members work for the same goal and use the same resources
The result is a shared group identity and a sense of accountability that comes from having others depend on you -- a powerful motivator indeed."
Where as in a competitive environment he notes:
"the only stake others have in your performance is a desire to see you fail"
He goes on to point out cooperation does not mean a perfect state of harmony
"Conflict is both inevitable and desirable;
disagreement produces change and challenges mistaken decisions."
And that cooperation is more likely to encourage these types of healthy conflict,
where as in a competition you may be tempted to let someone continue on with a bad idea
Because in a world where everyone is a potential competitor
we are encouraged to cheer when someone else fails
Squid Game shows this competition in our daily lives
creates harm that extends beyond ourselves as well
It hurts our loved ones and people who depend on us and isolates us all
Player 67 fled from North Korea and has been trying to reunite her family but without the means to do so her brother has to stay in an orphanage
Gi-hun's mother dies alone while he is gone
Who knows how many days her body laid there since everyone was too busy competing to survive to even notice
[Sang-woo's mom speaking Korean] She came down with something, I think. She hasn't come out to work.
And it's been a few days since she's answered her phone
I should've stopped by to check on her.
[Willow] Perhaps it is fitting that the word 'Meritocracy' was originally created
in a book that was meant as satire and to serve as a warning
In 'The Rise of the Meritocracy', Michael Young predicted that elites would use the wealth they already had accumulated
to further strengthen their positions as a permanent new social class
while escaping the scrutiny inherited wealth and power previously had received
They could control and influence education,
certifications and degrees and point to them as proof of their power's legitimacy
While poor workers would get branded early in life as undeserving causing them to be further deprived
Unfortunately for Young 'Meritocracy' became an ideal to aspire to
and it lost all its intended negative connotations And much of what Young's book predicted has come true
Elites in Squid Game and real life will argue this is just the way things have to be
or that it's human nature
But perhaps they just want to believe it because it let's them feel better about the choices they've made
Not just in the harm they have inflicted on others but how their pursuit of money over connection has hurt themselves
It might be frightening to accept the world we live in is not fair
That no matter how much skill we have or effort we put in luck will be a far larger factor in our outcome
But maybe another way of looking at it is what is the bare minimum outcome we are okay with for anyone?
While the competition in Squid Game may be an exaggeration
[joking] because I hope almost no one would be okay with losing a children's game resulting in death
Yes, EVEN if the players consented.
Is that really different than people being denied necessities for life?
Squid Game's Director Hwang Dong Hyuk doesn't seem to think so
The end of Season 1 shows Gi-hun driven by a new purpose to use his winnings to help others and
has little interest in using the money for himself Even giving up a trip to see his daughter
to try to prevent others going through what he did when he realizes the games have continued
[hopeful music begins]
But what do you think? Does Squid Game show we would all be better off working together
than competing with everyone around us?
I know which way I'd rather live
And let me know in the comments if you have any other South Korean films or shows you'd recommend
because after watching Snowpiercer, Parasite and Squid Game I think I want more
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