Most financial instruments are shadows on a cave wall. From Mark Jeftovic at bombthrower.com:
Lumpenvestors are trapped within a system they believe is real
Probably everybody reading this is familiar with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. Those who aren’t may recognize it in many of its contemporary variations: seminal blockbusters like “The Matrix” or lesser known cult classics such as “Dark City”, even the memetic thought construct of the “Simulation Hypothesis” – they are all expressing the same concept:
That what we think is The Real World actually isn’t, it’s just a flattened projection of reality. The common folk are like prisoners, chained in a cave, wherein observed events are largely acts of puppetry, choreographed from behind their field of vision.
In Plato’s allegory, the manufactured existence is quite literally the projection of shadows: what is taken for reality is really just images on a wall – a screen – if you will. Behind the captives, if one could make their way out of the cave, they could perceive reality for what it is – in the splendour of the full light of day.
The philosopher goes on to describe the difficulties an escapee would have, if they were to re-enter the cave and try to explain to those who are still captives what “reality” is really like.
