ABSTRACT
Plato's Socrates was not one of the political, religious or economic rulers of fifth century Athens. His own considerable public status depended on the communication of ideas by himself and his followers. It is not known if this affected his view of public communication using poetry, songs, noble lies and ritual as a servant of the all-wise guardians in Plato's Republic, but for him it was essential servant. In the public domain today, if not in private, the word 'conformity' is not entirely popular. Conformity must be counted as a human survival instinct, still very much alive. It was the underlying communication objective of the first groups formed by fully developed modern humans, emerging from earlier human and animal characteristics which can be observed in the natural world today. As far as PR is concerned, power-holders must have strategic communication needs. They exist in businesses, politics, campaigning nonprofits, governments, community groups: any organization with resources to manage its public communication.
