I've read this several times before, and I think it's safe to say that there's a lot I don't agree with. The arguments are often ridiculous, yes. There's more strawmen there than in all the cornfields of the world put together, yes. Plato is a tiresome windbag with a strangely and monstrously obsequious level of arrogance - yes, yes, yes.

But even so, as a foundation document of Western Civilization, it's hard to beat - the influence of The Republic is just immense. And for all the book's flaws, the metaphor of the cave looms enormous and overshadows them all.