Monson the Ultimate Fighter uses Plato’s allegory of the cave to describe the experience

Ya gotta love this story. Step outside the box. Step back in the box. Put on a show.

It’s not your whole life. Read a book. Open your eyes. Spend time with your family.

It’s a beautiful thing. It’s entertainment. Relax.

Read Chomsky. Join the Industrial Workers of the World. Tell the Secret Service to stuff it.

Take a class, earn a masters. In the humanities. Of course.

Oh man, that class really opened my eyes. Just looking at the way the world is run, the way that the people that might be disabled or have mental issues are left behind. How education and general welfare are not a priority, and how the elite run everything for their own benefit. Then I started reading a bunch of stuff — Animal Farm, the International Socialist Review, Chomsky — and I started thinking in a different way.
-- Jeff Monson, Ultimate Fighting Champion fighter

And, yes, in this story from In These Times that is a must read, Monson the Ultimate Fighter uses Plato’s allegory of the cave to describe the experience.

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thanks to loveecstacycrime for the link.

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UPDATE: A blinding flash of a post at Thomas Paine's Corner, a look at Noam Chomsky's new book Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy including:

One of Chomsky’s most startling and often over-looked observations about America is the chasm between political will and popular will.

Consider that in 1984, Reagan won with 30% of the popular vote. Of those polled, 4% said they voted for Reagan because “he’s a real conservative”. This equates to 1% of voters stating they were endorsing conservatism with their vote. America’s media proclaimed the election “a powerful mandate for conservatism”. Polls showed that in 1984 over 80% of Americans supported increases in social spending and a majority favored cuts in military spending over decreased spending on healthcare. Obviously the Reagan and his administration chose to curry the favor of 20% of the population when they implemented policy.

The United States is the only industrialized nation with no universal health care system. 46 million Americans are uninsured and the WHO recently rated the US healthcare system as number 37 in the world. Chomsky cited numerous opinion polls, including those conducted by NBC-Wall Street Journal and the Pew Research Center. Each poll reflected that over 60% of Americans wanted a universal health care system. Yet the privatized system is too great a benefit to the “substantial people”. It is politically “untouchable”. A nation as wealthy as the United States that does not provide basic healthcare to all of its people is a failed state.

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thanks to Informed Dissent for that one. Lots of good links over there.