In reply to broken spectre:
Keep the Aspidistra Flying -- Orwell.
... because 1984 gets lauded too much, anyway, (and for the wrong reasons because 1984 is far more about the insiduous horrors of double-think than those of mass of surveillance) and, in my opinion, the Aspidistra is perhaps even more relevant.
If 1984 explains the mechanism -- control of the proles through exploitation of the human tendency to resort to double-think, perhaps best stated as "bull-shit baffles brains" -- then the Aspidistra explains the reason why controlling the proles is a desireable dominant strategy for anyone, anyway.
Both books, taken together, pretty much explain today.