Why Squid Game Fails to Critique Capitalism

Squid Game Season 3 ended without really challenging capitalism. Beast Games and Happy Meals shows how Squid Game has been absorbed into the very system it sought to critique. This video essay dives into the Capitalist Realism of Squid Game, first through exploring how it portrays life under capitalism, before exposing how it ultimately fails to resist Ideology. With a little help from Slavoj Zizek, Michel Foucault, and our other friends, of course. Does Gi-hun's revolt fit the mold of a Marxist revolution? This is Squid Game Explained.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:47 Gi-hun Doesn't Understand Revolution
8:48 We Are The Guards [Foucault]
21:48 The Frontman's Ideology [Zizek]
30:12 What is Late Capitalism, Anyways [Fisher & Deleuze]
42:02 Mr. Beast "Gets" Squid Game [Zizek & Lacan]

#Squidgameseason3 #Squidgame #Squidgame3 #Videoessay #Filmanalysis #Squidgameexplained #Slavojzizek #Foucault #Gillesdeleuze #Capitalistrealism

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Sources:

Mark Fisher, "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?"
Michel Foucault, "Discipline and Punish"
Michel Foucault, "The History of Sexuality Vol. 1"
Gilles Deleuze, "Postscript on the Societies of Control"
Slovoj Zizek, "The Sublime Object of Ideology"
Slavoj Zizek, "Mapping Ideology"
Slavoj Zizek, "How to Read Lacan"

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Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
Friedrick Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

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Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, "Intellectuals and Power" (Interview)
Michel Foucault, "An Interview on Attica"
Hannah Arendt, "Eichmann in Jerusalem"

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Jacobin, "Squid Game’s Strike Flashbacks Were Modeled on Our Real-Life Factory Occupation"
Licom.org, "Ssangyong Motors Strike in South Korea Ends in Defeat and Heavy Repression"

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Some Featured Media:
They Live (1988)
Beau Travail (1999)
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012)
"Squid Game" (2021-2025)
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Featured Music:
"Moods of Vermont,""Interstellar Roadway," "Winter's Night," "What Lies Above," by    / @calebmicklus  
All other tracks licensed through Envato Elements.

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Credits:

Edited and Narrated by Martin Tran
Assistant Editing and Thumbnail Design by Ryan Yau
Illustrations by Nina Turovskiy
Writing Team Member Owen Keeley

Special thanks to Professor Samuel Blinkley for teaching me all I know about Foucault, and Mel Jones for enduring my incessant pausing of the show.

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Fair Use Clause: This video features materials protected by the Fair Use guidelines of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. All rights reserved to the copyright owners.

Presentation of ideas and thinkers are meant for education purposes and not personal reflection or endorsement of any individual team member's beliefs.

Edited on Davinci Resolve.

Segments shot on Iphone 11

Thanks for watching! :-D