The Allegory of the Cave

The allegory of the cave is one of the most powerful passages in the platonic corpus. It tells us that the philosopher should rule, and also explains the apparent cluelessness of philosophers in defective societies. There are two common misconceptions about the cave, which i'd like to clear up before concluding this episode. The first misconception is that the cave allegory commits plato to some kind of radical separation between our world and the world of forms. Ironically, it is those who nothing for power who should truly hold power. And is it me, or does plato have a point here?