The way to deal with tyrants
The fictional Squid Game is being played out now for all to see in the real world. Those in control of power and wealth are, in the name of their egocentric designs on the world, creating conflicts only to gratify their own personal ambitions. They will, if so inclined, force their powerless subjects into war while forcing the target(s) of their aggression into violent conflict as well. Most notably, there is Putin’s designs on Ukraine and Xi’s on Taiwan. This is much the same as the conflicts between Squid Game participants instigated by those dictating their behavior.
In the Squid Game, as well as in the real world, this is all orchestrated through the control of money. Most of us earn salaries in various workplaces which are for the most part providing the goods and services necessary to maintain a viable socioeconomic system. Through our jobs we are contributing to society as well as benefiting ourselves.
Money is the essential element energizing an economy and providing incentives to create businesses and attract employees. But while money is primary it is not necessarily paramount in the socioeconomic equation.
The money suspended above the heads of the Squid Game players is something they had two chances of acquiring — slim and none. And they know it. Only one out of hundreds of players will win the jackpot. And even then, even when one has been awarded the dream money it has no value. Because what’s paramount is being in the game and using one’s resources to play the game and stay in the game. That’s what matters. That is what is most meaningful and that is the leverage the powerful elite have over us. That is the primary button in the puppet master’s control panel. Our natural impetus to be a part of the social order to be a member in good standing of one’s community, one’s country and all that that entails.
A number of us will heed the call of defending our nation as a member of the armed forces as a way of participating in the game. But that patriotism can also be enlisted and twisted by a given potentate in pursuit of personal grandiose schemes of, for instance, global domination. Or, at the very least, territorial expansion. A member of the armed forces is obligated, expected, compelled to comply with being sent into combat for whatever reason or face severe penalties such as imprisonment or even death if they refuse. And that is how the power elite are able to willy-nilly incite bloody warfare between nations. And so, out of a sense of duty to defend one’s country, one becomes a cold-blooded assassin with orders to kill people in another country whose soldiers truly are fighting to defend their homeland.
It’s a puppet show conducted by the puppet master powers-that-be.
But the powers-that-be are vastly outnumbered by their puppets, who, if ever so inclined, could cut their strings, take control of their own lives and refuse to carry out orders they are opposed to. This would, of course, need to be a concerted effort of an entire society, or, at least, a significant portion. There have been revolts happening in some countries even now with regard to overreaching poweres-that-be. The Canadian truckers, for example.
This kind of revolt could also be conducted within the armed forces of a country that is, for instance, being ordered to invade another country. The soldiers could come together in their conviction that the invasion has no merit and refuse to obey their orders. What recourse would a ruler have, when faced with such a mutiny, to suppress it? Order the military to arrest itself?
Such a mutiny would be supported by international law as per the Nuremberg Principles where Principle IV states; The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.
Reading between the lines we might declare that the leader of a nation is not permitted to order troops into conflict without their consent.
That needs to be made explicit in the Nuremberg Principles.
