You Have To Save Yourself To Survive - Lessons From Squid Game
The real dystopian world that we live in; Pressure = creativity; Ravi; NCT127; Hyunjin's AOTM; Bad PR; Walk your own path; Squid Game colosseum; Gaslighting
Is it too late to join the Squid Game party? 🥶 Because I just finished the whole thing last week. But anyway, who’s traumatized after watching the dystopian thriller?
ME!
Moving on to today’s agenda… the unpretty life lessons that caught me while watching Netflix’s biggest foreign-language series.
⚠️: For 18+, mature readers only
Creativity comes out in times of scarcity
Deadlines are scary... for the ones who hate structures.
But our ability to overcome the hurdles presented in a short amount of time is unlimited and unimaginable.
When Seong Gi-hun saw what his nervous sweat could do to the dalgona candy, his brain immediately process that he needs water (moisture) to quicken the process of removing the 'umbrella shape' from the candy. And what better way to get moisture if not through licking the candy!
This scene asserts that inspiration can come from the most unexpected places.
The human brain is a fascinating thing. It gives you stress in times of approaching deadlines. But the pressure that comes with it has a way of telling your brain to switch focus from distractions and kick in to problem-solving mode.
Being pure and kind can cost you your precious life
Eg: Ali.
He found comfort in despair through the newfound brotherbond with Seung-woo. Too much that he trusted him to be their saving grace after the moral-crisis in the marble game. But what did Ali got in the end?
Na-dah!
But hello, newsflash people: no one, is going to save you every day, and forever in the real world.
The weak ones & the dependent ones die in the Squid Game.
The nature and order of this world may make us have no choice but to save ourselves.
An alternative: practice selective kindness.
We can be kind, up until a certain point.
We can be kind, to people who matter.
We can be kind, to those who deserve it.
And that doesn't mean that we have to resort to cruelty. Just remember that being too kind at the cost of your life and what matters to you, can put you at the disadvantaged end.
The journey to the top is not without thorny roads and pain
The higher you climb, the tougher it gets.
It doesn't get any easier, even if you did the same thing, in a different environment years ago. And even if you are sitting on years of experience and training.
The world changes every day, and ‘the top’ that you imagine will be in different circumstances than you predicted years ago.
The battle that sits right at the top of the pyramid, is usually the battle of the mind, ethics, and morals—the hardest battle out of all.
Some moral dilemma in Squid Game that are no different from real life;
Gi-hun & Sang-woo, childhood neighbors who battle off their ideologies against each other. One wants to save people, one wants to win and ready to sacrifice people.
The husband had to sacrifice his wife—just how desperate these two are to join back the game knowing that one would have to die in the end?
Deok-su, the thug faced off his increasing distrust among his thug comrades.
Humans become animals when they are cornered
No shade to any animal intended ✌🏼
When you are presented with a situation that corners you, you'll do what it takes to emerge out of it. Best example, ehem;
Sang woo, is the most realistic character in Squid Game, IMO.
He would do what it takes to win the prize money. (1) By pushing off the glass worker off the bridge, (2) by cheating Ali, and (3) by ending Sae-byeok's on-the-verge-of death situation. All these, so that he can clear his name from fraud and money laundering.
Who can blame the poor SNU graduate?
Not a pretty example. But that is what life can make you do in times of desperation.
Another newsflash: money is the likely root cause of many desperations.
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At the end of the day, only the ones who understood the game can endure whatever that is thrown at them upon their path to the prize.
The circumstances that you are presented in, sadly to say, cannot be altered to your 'wishful thinking'. Unless you are the leader of the troop.
This is when you should switch off your fantasy lens of how you 'wished the world would be' to accepting ‘what the world really is’.
The real beyond-your-control environment will throw anxiety, fear, and anger at you. If you submit to them, you will lose. But if you know how to play the game, to look at it with the 'real lens' (aka the rules of the game), you'll learn to navigate and cope in adult-directed settings.
On a different correlation of game or play, The Play Deficit pointed out the benefits of play to children, which adults too, can learn from.
"Play teaches social skills without which life would be miserable. But it also teaches how to manage intense, negative emotions such as fear and anger
One of play’s major purposes is to help the young learn how to cope emotionally (as well as physically) with emergencies.
Children who want to continue playing know they have to control that anger, use it constructively in self-assertion, and not lash out.”
Your wishful thinking/tantrums of "if the situations were like this, instead of like this, I could do better" will throw you out of the game.
The faster you accept the rules of reality is like A, the faster you'll adapt to A, and make adjustments with what you are actually in control with along the line.
And like in any survival game, the ultimate goal is to save yourself
Like I said folks, the lessons here are not painted in a pretty shade, rather dystopian. But some brutal truths need to be said cause the world we live in can also be… dystopian. 🌚
Which part resonated with you most in this letter, or what are your thoughts on Squid Game, share with me!
Current Obsessions
Ravi’s vlog with Kai
DAY6's You Were Beautiful cover
NCT SNL & Jaehyun's acting —speaking of, bout time they broadcast Dear.M 🌝
Hyunjin's AOTM — & I underestimated his short hair hahaha, not putting hair gel on his hair is a great decision + that cap on (0:16), cap off (0:38) moment 👏🏼; here’s a reaction that dissected his dance moves. SKZ’s Call Me & their ad-hoc dance.
Serious Things
Bad PR: SKZ's performance on a helipad. Takeaway: A PR-directed move to host something on an extreme, high scale can draw backlash (re: comments). I don't know if I have ever said this in this newsletter... But I was formally trained in PR, so I love spotting PR-related content, and comment on them.
"It's better to go wrong in your own path than to be right in other people's path." — Walk Your Own Path
Gaslighting: people who try to define your reality for you.
Just really understood what gaslight meant from Dr. Roberta Shaler
Recently Finished
Squid Game &
Its many theories, summaries, reactions, parodies (American version). But my favorite has got to be this theory of the Front Man—hello I didn't notice he was trembling whenever he shot whoever!
As well as the play station controllers
🌟 So smart: The director said the bunk beds were representations of the Colosseum, as in the symbolism of a grueling life-and-death combat arena.
Final thoughts on Squid Game: What a depressing, traumatizing show that comments on the brutal world we live in. Maybe we do live in a dystopian world.
Elsewhere
Another way of rising up is to meet yourself in a situation you can’t control.
Last week I talked about sunk costs—pretty handy if you know how to recognize them! Pssst: sunk costs are subjective and depends on one person’s upbringing, values, ambitions, etc
From Kitty City
Finally faced my fears. While I can’t exactly disclose, yet, here’s what I want to remember: the fear was like a fever that devoured my whole body.
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[Photos courtesy of Netflix]