I immediately thought of 1984, but this might not even be the most relevant portion:
War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed. A Floating Fortress, for example, has locked up in it the labour that would build several hundred cargo-ships. Ultimately it is scrapped as obsolete, never having brought any material benefit to anybody, and with further enormous labours another Floating Fortress is built.
When someone online (not here; e.g. on Twitter or FB) brings up 1984 it usually starts and ends with “Big Brother is watching,” although that’s possibly followed by the assertion that Orwell wasn’t really a socialist or wouldn’t be one today. It never mentions the real purpose of the Floating Fortresses, nor the “rough quadrilateral,” or the other things that were analogous with things that have actually happened.
