Unity or rule

Make what you want of this quote. It can apply to many on today's geopolitical stage.

By encouraging communications between systems, planets, and people, the ancients sought to bind their empires together. But those who wish to rule must divide populations rather than unify them. The ancients are gone. We rule in their place.

This is at the head of a chapter in Runner by William C. Dietz. The novel takes place in an intergalactic set of societies in which technology was downgraded and many transportation and communication systems have broken down for lack of knowledge to maintain them. Along with the breakdown in these systems has come a breakdown in social systems. The result is a rise in anarchy, banditry, and other self-centered behavior.