Conflict Between Winners... When Did Their Directions Diverge? [Ogam Deep Dive①]

New facts revealed help Seong Gihun resolve cognitive dissonance
Attempts to inspire collective action, but more than half shout "One more round!"
Why the Front Man looks down on the participants
The Front Man's ideology is shaken by the devoted Seong Gihun

In the early episodes of Netflix's "Squid Game" Season 1, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) squanders money stolen from his elderly mother on gambling. He fails to be a proper father to his daughter. Although he seemed pathetic, he was actually a diligent worker who had been employed at a car company for 16 years. He participated in strikes and protests against the company's restructuring and was eventually fired. The cause of his life's downfall was not his fault. It lay in the unfairness of society, which he could not control by himself.

Seong Gi-hun neither committed wrongdoing nor fraud, yet he was brutally cast out by society. He witnesses similar events in the Squid Game. Participants feel helpless and lose their lives. To survive, they must trample over and surpass other participants. Sometimes, they must inflict direct pain. The cognitive dissonance experienced in this process is truly the worst ordeal.

Cognitive dissonance can be resolved through external or internal factors. The former requires new facts to be revealed. A representative example is Seong Gi-hun. Upon realizing that Oh Il-nam's death was not his fault, he ends his reclusive life. Recognizing that the root of various problems lies with the game organizers, he jumps back into the fire.

Season 2 focuses on the process of this grand plan collapsing. Seong Gi-hun does not succumb to fear in the game world he returns to. Even when his life is at stake, he demonstrates civic consciousness. He teaches participants survival strategies and urges them to stop the game. About half of the participants trust and follow him.

Exceptional courage tends to spread through collective action. When the Titanic sank, passengers did not cause chaos trying to board the few small lifeboats. They calmly decided who should be rescued first, such as children and women, and maintained their dignity until the end. Some willingly sacrificed themselves in the process.

The same was true during the September 11, 2011, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York. People evacuated urgently but did not push each other. They descended the stairs calmly according to evacuation protocols instead of rushing out all at once.

Such events do not occur in the world of Squid Game. More than half shout "One more round!" and degrade their own dignity. They even cause bloodshed. They violently explode the tension inherent in the dark dormitory. Using all means, they attack each other indiscriminately. The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) stokes fear by flashing lights in the pitch-black darkness. He completely distrusts the participants.

In 19th-century Western society, crowds were also regarded as entities that could erupt into extremes at any moment. Intellectuals of the time viewed crowds as rabble. French psychologist Jean-Fran?ois Marmion explained this in his book "The Psychology of Squid Game."

"The rabble were beings to be tamed for use as labor or soldiers. The social elite feared indiscriminate revolutions, labor union activities dreaming of a new society, and crowd riots that could lead to anarchy. They thought crowds were groups that could turn from calm waves into tsunamis in an instant, enthralled by attractive and charismatic leaders who revealed deadly cruelty. Crowds were likened to reckless, easily passionate madwomen fascinated by authoritarian machismo."

The Front Man also belittles the participants as racing horses. He is not like the VIPs who watch the game arrogantly laughing. He remains calm and composed no matter what happens. He is closer to a passionate idealist. It was not like this from the moment he stepped into the Squid Game world as a participant. Lee Byung-hun said, "In Season 2, the confession he delivers to Seong Gi-hun while disguised as Oh Young-il is sincere about past events." The confession is as follows.

"My wife is very sick. She needs a liver transplant due to acute cirrhosis, but during hospital tests, we found out she is pregnant. (Omitted) We couldn't find a liver for the transplant, her condition worsened, and even after borrowing all the money we could, it was unmanageable. It was so urgent that I borrowed money from a business contact I had known for a long time, but it turned out to be a bribe, which caused problems, and I was eventually fired from the job I had devoted my youth to."

The Front Man won the game at that time. Unlike Seong Gi-hun, he may have resolved his cognitive dissonance directly during the process. He lost both his wife and child. He must have desperately tried to change his moral standards and find justifications that convinced himself. For example: 'I did kill him, but I had no choice,' or 'If I hadn't killed him, he would have killed me.'

This was a characteristic seen in Jo Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) from Season 1. He was excellent at resolving cognitive dissonance. After killing Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), he rationalizes his actions by saying, "He was going to die anyway." It was no different after pushing another participant off the glass stepping stones to escape danger. When Seong Gi-hun asked, "Would you have pushed him if you were me?" he retorted, "Hey! Do you know why your life is such a mess?"

Counter-questions are typical responses to cognitive dissonance. They project one's own loser-like image onto the other. Psychologist Albert Bandura pointed out that 'self-exoneration' occurs when people act according to their own moral code, which they believe is superior to general morality. He saw it as justifying law violations beyond established norms under the pretext of resisting injustice. It is the claim that one rationalizes their actions by assuming those inferior to them are evil and that their behavior has legitimate reasons.

Self-exoneration, evasion of responsibility, and dehumanization are tools that free one from all pangs of conscience. The character who uses this most effectively in "Squid Game" is the Front Man. He despises the participants throughout, mistakenly believing the Squid Game world is much more equal and fair than the outside world. He erases humanity by relying on uniforms, masks, and numbers.

This ideology becomes precarious with Seong Gi-hun's reappearance. He has matured and become a devoted human being even in a hellish world. He ignited hope that we can overcome social injustice ourselves. It was not a victory won by chance, as in Squid Game. It was a brilliant achievement made by not deceiving one's conscience and preserving human dignity. Perhaps this is the external factor the Front Man had long sought to resolve his cognitive dissonance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.