00:00If you are a player in a sour-squid game, you would do the unthinkable.
00:07Kill, manipulate, sacrifice a part of yourself, physically or morally, all in the name of survival.
00:14These games are gruesome, no doubt, but if we look beyond the blood and brutality,
00:19we can notice that they reflect a reality we face every day.
00:24Think about it.
00:25Ever since we learned to walk, we have been told that we are masters of our destiny,
00:30we are free to make our own choices and if we work hard enough, we can build the life we deserve.
00:36But, is it really true or is it just a comforting story to keep us in line?
00:42So, in this video we'll talk about the underlying themes of Saw and Squid Game,
00:47about freedom, power and survival.
00:50This can help us understand the hidden rules of the games we play every single day
00:56and how to win even though the odds are stacked against us.
01:01The illusion of free will
01:03Both John Kramer and the front man love to propagate the idea of giving people a choice,
01:10that by playing these games they will gain a life-changing perspective or a life-changing amount of money.
01:17But, do these people really have a choice?
01:21Jigsaw designs every trap to exploit your fears and weaknesses.
01:25You start confused and terrified, which is a massive disadvantage.
01:29Can you really think clearly and choose wisely when you're in a panic mode?
01:35And in Squid Game, they tell you that participation is voluntary,
01:40but they know you're drowning in debt, they know you have nowhere else to turn,
01:45and they don't reveal the stakes until it's too late.
01:49In other words, in both cases, you operate in an environment designed to manipulate and exploit you.
01:56If you win, you serve the goals of those above you.
02:00If you lose, you're simply expendable.
02:04Kinda like real life, isn't it?
02:07These shows reveal the illusion that we are masters of our destiny,
02:12and there's actual research behind this concept.
02:15B.F. Skinner demonstrated that the environment and our past experiences
02:20play a huge role in influencing our behavior.
02:23Our decisions are the product of a lifetime of patterns, habits, and the world around us.
02:30In other words, what seems like a personal choice is often shaped by forces we cannot see or control.
02:38The good news is that while we can't control these forces,
02:42we can learn to recognize them and diminish their negative influences.
02:47This leads to the work of two of other heavy figures in psychology, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.
02:55Their approach was simple.
02:57Since humans have the ability to reason, they can learn how to think clearly and make better decisions.
03:04And again, there's overwhelming research that supports their approach.
03:09So here's how I make sense of all of this.
03:13You have no free will until you learn how to use your brain to work for you and not against you.
03:19Without it, you are like a ship in a storm.
03:22You never know where you will end up, but surely it will be bad.
03:27You will be forced to make some tough choices, which brings us to another crucial theme.
03:34Morality is a luxury.
03:37You're a good person.
03:39You don't lie, cheat, or hurt others.
03:41But is that because you're guided by strong moral values,
03:45or because you've never been desperate enough to test them?
03:49Look, many of us have had the fortune to have food, shelter, and access to average education
03:55that give us the tools to keep that lifestyle.
03:58But what happens when the morons we have elected make horrible decisions,
04:03and their consequences slowly trickle down on us?
04:06I mean, you might lose your job, struggle to pay rent, someone you care about is very sick,
04:11your car breaks down, you happen to fall for a con man.
04:15You know, there's this interesting tendency that when you are down, everything starts to fall apart like dominoes.
04:22Squid Game perfectly captures how this feels in the second episode, accurately titled Hell.
04:30After the first game ends, the players are horrified by it and vote to leave.
04:36For a brief moment, they think they have reclaimed their freedom,
04:40but they quickly realize that their real world is still a nightmare.
04:45Gi-hun is still drowning in debt, unable to support his daughter, and watching his mother's health deteriorate.
04:52Sang-woo is still facing arrest and financial ruin due to his bad investments.
04:58Ali is still being exploited by a boss who sees him as disposable,
05:03and after the accident, he will definitely go to jail.
05:07So, one by one, most of the players return to the game.
05:12Here, they feel they've got a slight chance of winning and turning all of this around,
05:18even if it means betraying their long-held moral values.
05:23You know, they saw the blood-socked chaos of the first game.
05:27It would be foolish to think the other ones are any better.
05:31Right now, morality is just another thing they can't afford.
05:36Look, most people aren't actually evil.
05:39But when survival is on the line, when the rope gets tighter and tighter,
05:45the consequences of betraying those values seem small by comparison.
05:50Another very interesting situation is when you are an idealistic person
05:55who would love to improve the world but is powerless to do so.
05:59And here I think Machiavelli was right.
06:02When you have no power, your idealism is worth spit.
06:06Gi-hun is a flawed but fundamentally kind person.
06:11He loves his daughter and mother, yet he's reckless.
06:15By the time we meet him, he has ruined his marriage, gambled away his money,
06:20and accumulated a mountain of debt.
06:25When the games begin, Gi-hun does his best to help and protect others,
06:29even though they're his competitors.
06:32He clings to his humanity as much as he can.
06:35But then we reach the marble game in episode 6.
06:39He's paired with Il-nam, the frail old man he has been protecting since the start.
06:45At first he tries to play fairly, but as the clock ticks down, the stakes become unavoidable.
06:54Win or die.
06:55Your choice.
06:56So he manipulates Il-nam, exploiting his apparent confusion and memory loss to survive.
07:03It's one of the most devastating moments of the show not just for Gi-hun, but also for us as viewers.
07:11Deep down, we know that we would have done the same.
07:15However, his feelings of betrayal and guilt do not destroy him.
07:20They force him to confront the darkness we all have within ourselves.
07:24So it doesn't strip away his humanity.
07:27And we can see this in the final game where he refuses to kill Sang-woo.
07:32The real turning point comes later when he discovers that Il-nam is alive.
07:39And he's actually the mastermind behind all of this chicanery.
07:45It still doesn't erase the actions during the marble game,
07:49but that revelation shifts the blame from himself to the system.
07:54It shifts to this monstrous game that forces people like him to betray their ideals just to survive.
08:02Gi-hun takes the prize money and heads to the airport to reunite with his daughter in the US.
08:09It seems his story might end right there.
08:12But as he's about to enter the terminal, he sees the salesman recruiting yet another victim,
08:18and something snaps inside of him.
08:22Now, some fans argue that he should have ignored it and started a new life in the US.
08:28But I truly believe that he made the right choice.
08:33Because he would never been able to enjoy his life after that experience.
08:38The things he witnessed and had to do during the games will forever stay with him.
08:44Understandably, he was feeling empty and depressed.
08:47And you know that kind of dread is why people drink or snort themselves to oblivion.
08:53You cannot escape it unless you face it head-on.
08:57So that moment is the best thing that could have happened to him.
09:02Up until now he has been a pawn.
09:05A pawn of his addiction and then of people who organized this game.
09:10He was never in control.
09:12But now he has a strong purpose and the necessary means to achieve it.
09:17The odds are still stacked against him.
09:19But he's no longer a pawn.
09:21He's a force.
09:23His journey shows us something profound.
09:26Idealism is easy when you're safe.
09:28It's worthless when you're powerless.
09:31But when you have seen the depths of human suffering and confronted the darkest parts of yourself,
09:38that's when idealism comes alive and you're ready to face those who play God without permission.
09:46What I get from the Saw franchise is that John Kramer is a perfect illustration of every prophet-like figure in history,
09:54whether in religion, politics or science.
09:57Is it a bold statement?
09:59Maybe.
10:00But hear me out and decide for yourself.
10:03John has this picture-perfect life.
10:06He has a great wife who expects his son and a great career as a civil engineer.
10:11Then his wife is attacked at the rehab center where she works and loses their son.
10:17If that weren't enough, shortly thereafter, John is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
10:24He is overwhelmed by grief and drives his car off a cliff.
10:29But he survives and has a powerful revelation.
10:32People don't appreciate life.
10:35They waste it and take it for granted, and he decides to teach them a lesson.
10:40Now, throughout the entire series, John frames his actions as being tough but fair.
10:47Your bad choices have led to this moment, but you have the chance to survive and emerge as a different person.
10:54If you're willing to sacrifice something from yourself, in this case, something literal.
10:59And of course, endure unimaginable pain.
11:03But as we said earlier, this is bullshit.
11:06He has crafted the traps to exploit your deepest fears.
11:10Add that the element of surprise and urgency, and the odds are extremely high that you will fail.
11:17Whether he knows it or not, he is not actually teaching people.
11:22He's punishing them.
11:24Now, after John inevitably dies, he leaves step-by-step manuals on carrying out his ideology.
11:32And it doesn't take long for his companions to use his teachings to indulge their own loss for power and cruelty.
11:40So if you think that John is one twisted fuck, wait to see his most loyal followers.
11:47That's the problem with these prophet-like figures.
11:50No matter how destructive or wrong their mindset is, as long as the narrative that sells it is compelling, it will spread like a virus.
11:59And soon, it will mutate into forms that can be worse than the original.
12:04Look, my point is this.
12:06Every period in history has a group of highly influential people who create or spread a certain ideology.
12:13You know, a certain way of living or looking at the world.
12:16Sometimes it will largely benefit the people.
12:20Sometimes it will largely destroy them and pave the way for something new.
12:25Either way, these ideologies outlast their creators.
12:30They are embedded in institutions woven into cultures and passed down from generation to generation until they arrive at you.
12:41So whether you realize it or not, the big decisions you make today, the rules you follow, the assumptions you hold about yourself and others, the values you learned as a child, are echoes of history's most influential voices.
12:57They are always there whispering in your ear.
13:00Sometimes it's the twisted ones, sometimes it's the brilliant ones.
13:05That's why educating yourself matters.
13:08It's the only way to recognize which voices you are listening to.
13:12When you understand those voices, when you truly understand yourself, that's when you finally gain free will.
13:20Very well.
13:21Thank you very much.
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