Fragmentation device

And I think what’s frightening is the way not only the public has been fragmented, but the way that these fragments are manipulated to be turned one against the other. So, for instance, corporate capitalism strips workers of benefits and job protection, pensions, medical plans, and then very skillfully uses that diminished fragment to turn against public sector workers, such as teachers, who still have those benefits. So the question doesn’t become, why doesn’t everyone have those benefits; the question becomes, to that fragment which is being manipulated by forces of propaganda and public relations, you don’t have it, and therefore they shouldn’t have it. 

Chris Hedges on divide and rule, a technique that's as old as the hills. But it is worth reading the whole piece here, for a flavour of how insidiously dangerous this technique is in a modern world where big data allied with market segmentation can help propagandists slice and dice the general public more finely than ever before, until nothing's left but a multitude of puny, competing particular publics.

Unity is strength and must be undermined at all costs...