Capitalism and ethics: What does Squid Game show us about our world?

Netflix's most awaited Season 2 of the deadliest Squid Game is already topping the list of most-watched non-English shows. It showcases a unique world away from the laws and social structures of the contemporary world.

Unlike the real world, the game is believed to provide an 'equal' ground for its contestants to win and earn a whopping amount of 45.6 billion Korean won regardless of their class and social background. The contestants need to compete in playing traditional Korean games, but the games have its life-and-death twist. Contestants who suffer "elimination" are shot spontaneously and killed. The show is an attempt to portray how greed takes on our senses.

The world of the Squid Game is not very different from that of the capitalist world we live in, which is rooted in a profit motive and propagates survival of the fittest.

**Disclaimer: The below text is the author's opinion; the reader's discretion is required.

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What does Squid Game show us about our world?

The recruiter of Squid Game secretively reaches out to people with critical debts and manipulates them at just the right time. Season 2 opens with Gi-Hun, the previous season's winner, again entering the game and trying to convince contestants not to play.

The game respecting the contestant's 'choice' opens it for the democratic process of voting. Despite the huge risk of life involved that shook the contestants after the first round, they all eventually changed their minds to not quit and keep playing after realizing the amount of cash they could make over every death.

Squid Game is an allegory portraying how capitalism poses desperate people against each other in a deadly battle while the elites enjoy the show with snacks and alcohol. In an interview with Variety, director Hwang Dong-hyuk admits that anti-capitalism was a major theme in the Korean thriller. He went on to say,

"I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society. Something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life.”

Squid Game shows how we are ingrained to be competitive since childhood. It is also a comment on how individualism is a by-product of capitalism that further makes people more selfish and less community-oriented.

The show's format, where contestants must kill each other for survival, parallels the "dog-eat-dog" nature of capitalist competition, where success often comes at the expense of others. As the game progresses and the survival motive intensifies, the contestants face ethical dilemmas. The VIPs enjoying it for entertainment purposes show the elite's detachment from the struggles of the marginalized, seeing them as disposable.

The masked guards represent faceless institutions that control and tame by inducing fear among people and keeping them in the loop of survival and labor without caring much about their well-being.

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How Gi-Hun's character has helped explore capitalism and ethics in Squid Game's storyline

Gi-Hun's sayings for other contestants are similar to what Grandma's stories are for kids. The story comes with a message that is rooted in foresight and life experience, but the kids still choose to learn it all the hard way.

In episode 2 of Squid Game, Gi-hun confronts the Front Man (through a speaker) in the white limo and tells him to stop the game. The frontman answers that people are participating by their choice. He considers the people who died in the game as losers.

"They were all losers of the game, trash eliminated from the competition. A ton of new trash will be poured into the world. You still don't see it, do you? The game will not end unless the world changes."

In the game, Gi-Hun prepares people for an uprise as he has played the game before, but instead, people take his awareness as an opportunity to beat the game and win the cash prize. Therefore, Squid Game is a dark, satirical commentary on how a hyper-competitive, profit-driven society can dehumanize and strip people of their ethics.