Ingsoc Timeline

The Ingsoc Timeline describes an alternate timeline where England became a tightly controlled authoritarian dictatorship and the United States government implemented some of England's new policies to their own country following the end of World War II.

The Nazi Invasion of England
The Primary Divergence Point of this timeline from the Main Timeline comes from the success of Operation Sea Lion, carried out immediately after the British retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. In the Main Timeline, Operation Sea Lion was never tried because Germany needed superior naval and air forces over Britain and was never able to achieve either. However, there actually was a point when it was possible, with some more exertion from the factories and the weapons research departments, for this to occur, and this timeline shows what would have happened if they had. Of course, due to the infinite worlds theory, there are plenty of other timelines (an infinite amount, to get technical) where Operation Sea Lion works and the Nazis invaded England, but there are many other Divergence Points that separate them, and a specific string leads to the Ingsoc timeline presented here.

There was much resistance after the Nazis came, but after several months of combat between British citizens and the German forces, the latter won out. This was achieved with assistance from the British Union of Fascists, and Adenoid Hynkel personally welcomes Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirt followers into the Axis Powers, allowing them to rule alongside the Nazi officers. However, the resistance movement is not dead yet and, with assistance from the United States, now an active participant in the war following the full conquest of Europe, bides its time.

The Rise of Big Brother
Roderick Spode, despite being the 7th Earl of Sidcup, was once little more than a designer of lingerie and a supporter of fascism who even ran his own group, the Saviours of Britain. He only garnered a dozen-or-so followers in the 1930s and quickly lost them when the war broke out. He failed to convince his countrymen that they needed to accept Hynkel's Thousand-Year Reich as inevitable and align with Nazi Germany, and he was run out of Mayfair, then out of London, then out of the British Isles entirely - just narrowly missing the invasion of England in 1940.

Meanwhile, the resistance movement was fomenting in secret. Roderick's brother, physicist William Spode, was a critical member, able to alert them to the existence of a top-secret German program to create an atomic bomb. William tried to provide the secrets of atomic weapons development to the resistance; however, he was murdered in November 1941. His other sibling, John, also died shortly after, but not before revealing the existence of another Spode brother to two important figures in the movement. The revelation of the eldest Spode, and one who was a power-hungry wannabe fascist dictator, greatly appealed to Rudolf "Rud" Whitlow and Emmanuel Goldstein, the future founders of Ingsoc (the rebranding of the English Socialism Party, an offshoot of the Labour Party). Their network managed to track down and contact Roderick Spode, who initially bristled at the thought of joining a socialist group. Goldstein told him about the true nature of their cause, and that he was their top choice for Party Leader, which was enough for Roderick.

When the British Resistance successfully repelled the remaining Nazis out of England in 1944 in the Battle of Britain (later called the Battle of Airstrip One), Spode was made out by Goldstein's accomplices to be the combatant responsible for the decisive move that saved the day, then as the true architect of the entire resistance effort. Despite accusations that he was neither of these things, the members of Ingsoc, who by then had infiltrated the resistance movement and particularly its leadership, cleverly collaborated to make their case and Spode was celebrated. Spode liked the praise but wanted the political power immediately. He was told that they had to bide their time.

The Rise of Ingsoc
At the conclusion of the Second World War, in which several nations united in a global battle against the totalitarian governments and practices of a different alliance of nations, England was among the many countries around the world left in terrible shape. London and other cities needed much rebuilding after the occupation, shortages and diseases like tuberculosis were rampant, living standards and birthrates were low, huge divisions between the upper and lower classes remained, and the colonies were declaring independence from the quickly diminishing empire.

Even after defeating the dictators Adenoid Hynkel, Benzino Napolini, and Hideki Tojo, the people of England desired a strong leader of their own to guide their country out of this postwar slump. But it was at this point that Ingsoc, which had steadily gained strength over the years, reminded the public that the country indeed had their own great hero: Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup. He was quickly fitted and trained to be the next Prime Minister and told to use the slogan, "Let Me Be Your Big Brother." The nickname, implying a commanding but warm and trustworthy authority, stuck and later became official.

"Big Brother" and the Party promised more rations, less class inequality, better national defense so that nothing like the Blitz could ever happen again, and a return to power. They promised that all who would dare to harm England would be immediately discovered and thwarted. They promised an end to the grimness of the immediate postwar era, and most of all, they promised to keep the people content. Naturally, the people voted for them, and England was never the same.

Ingsoc's System of Control
It is commonly joked in other countries that the only construction in Airstrip One (the new name for the isle of England itself) that works efficiently is their torture system, for the repression of dissidents. In truth, it might be fairer to give that distinction to the governmental system, which was meticulously crafted by B.B. and his cohorts, known collectively as the Inner Party, to grant them as much power as possible while granting all others as little power as possible. This is accomplished through the use of highly complex psychological manipulation intended to force the people to submit totally to Big Brother and the government. It all worked so well that in only a few decades after the Party came to power, every single aspect of life (aside from the proletariat, or "proles," for the most part) became strictly controlled so as to achieve these goals.

Doublethink
The crux of this brainwashing scheme is the concept of doublethink, which is similar to the concept of cognitive dissonance but without the conflict. It essentially describes any instance where someone simultaneously holds two contradictory beliefs as true. This allows the Party to, for example, report that rations have been increased from the year before when they actually used to be higher and still have people believe it without question. This twisted logic keeps the people in line and the Party in power. Three prominent examples make up the slogan of the party: "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength."

Government
The duties of the government are divided between four ministries, whose pleasant-sounding names actually indicate the opposite of their duty - still more examples of doublethink. The Ministry of Peace (commonly referred to as Minipax) is in charge of the armed forces and oversees the wars it constantly fights. It does not seek to win the war, but actively prolongs it to the point that citizens of Airstrip One know nothing else. This ensures that there are never enough resources for the populace to have truly good living conditions, which would lower the people's dependence on their government and could lead them to actually really consider their situation - which would in turn lead to a disruption of the peace within Airstrip One.

The Ministry of Plenty (Miniplenty) handles rationing and other factors of the country's planned economy. They control the means of production and claim that most of the goods and food produced need to be sent to the armed forces so they can keep fighting the war (which we have established is a fabrication). The Ministry actually enforces a state of poverty within the country because an impoverished, starving populace is easier to rule over than one that is wealthier and more fit. It also means more of everything for the Inner Party.

All these and more falsities are made truth in the minds of the people because of the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue) and their propaganda. The definition of "truth" within the country is whatever the government's definition of truth is at the moment, even if it is a lie. The Records Department (Recdept) even alters previously written items such as old newspaper articles and educational materials to fit whatever the party line happens to be at the time. It is impossible to tell the history of Airstrip One as they see it because there is no set history. Minitrue also commissions public works to spread approved messages, such as a marble monument called the Monument of the Unknown Citizen, which contains a poem meant to demonstrate how a proper citizen behaves and thinks.

All these measures cannot prevent a few people from dissenting, and it is the duty of the Ministry of Love (Miniluv) to take care of them. Big Brother promised the people of England, still reeling from the horrors of the Nazi occupation, that the Party would not let anyone harm the country. However, this security came at the cost of freedom: under the pretense of keeping the country safe from traitors and spies, a police force known as the Thought Police was formed to find anyone with opposing or even just plain differing ideas from the Party and take them away to the Ministry building. They keep an eye on the populace at all times, initially through surveillance cameras placed all over the city and later through "telescreens," televisions installed in people's homes that doubled as cameras.

Any dissenters discovered are sent to the Ministry of Love's building, where they are tortured physically and mentally until their will is entirely broken. Some are killed and declared "unpersons," meaning removed from all records (a tactic borrowed from Stalin's Soviet Union), while most are merely sent back out after their spirits are broken and bent to the Party's favor. It is through this instillation of fear that the government forces everyone to adore Big Brother.

Among the earliest known people to go through the Ministry of Love's brutal rehabilitation process were socialites Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and Augustus Fink-Nottle, with whom Spode was acquainted; and journalist and critic Eric Blair, who criticized Ingsoc during its rise to power. Later notable victims include John McCartney, an outspoken anti-police protester, and Archibald Tuttle, a heating engineer turned enemy of the state.

Language
The amount of thought put into forcing every last person in the country to submit to the government's iron will even extends to language. From their inception, the English Socialism government gradually introduced a new dialect of English called Newspeak. Though it took a while to catch on and has yet to replace all language, Newspeak is quite prevalent in society, especially because many Party concepts are named and spoken about in Newspeak terms. The purpose of introducing this manner of speech is to limit freedom of thought: synonyms, antonyms, and words describing undesirable things do not exist; and the language only allows for simple, single-meaning concepts to be thought about and spoken. This has attracted the attention of foreign linguists, who see this manipulation of spoken language as a strong sign that Ingsoc had an incredibly solid schematic for attaining and maintaining total control.

Leadership
It is widely believed that Big Brother is and has always been the sole and supreme executive of the government, whose word is law and whose eyes are always watching. Even the people who have been in the position of Big Brother - Roderick Spode and his successors - are led to believe this. All are wrong, and the only ones who knew, the true people in power, are an upper echelon of the Inner Party.

After Ingsoc took power, Rud Whitlow and Emmanuel Goldstein were the true people in charge, with Spode as a figurehead. However, Whitlow feared that he was being undercut by Goldstein and decided he wanted all the power for himself - and while Goldstein may have been the genius behind the system, Whitlow was the political mastermind of the pair and, more importantly, incredibly aggressive. He accused Goldstein of leading a resistance organization called the Brotherhood, which worked to bring down Big Brother and the government. It was a lie, and both of the men knew it, but when word was given (by Whitlow) to Spode of the accusations, he ordered the immediate execution of Goldstein on the grounds of treason. Minitrue put it all over the news - without mention of Whitlow, of course - and the enraged populace hunted for anyone who might be a member of the Brotherhood. Interestingly, Party leadership ordered that Goldstein's execution not be reported to the public so that he and the Brotherhood could serve as further reasons to take extreme measures in suppressing dissent.

This was how there came to be a sole commander of the Inner Party. Whitlow wanted to be a publicly renowned official, but because his dreams of a one-world state proved to be impossible to achieve in his lifetime even when allied with the United States, and because of the public execution of Winston Churchill and the death of King George VI at the hands of the Nazis, he was content with staying behind the scenes and ruling over this isolated world.

Worldview
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the way Ingsoc keeps control over the country is all the lies they instill in their people and skillfully maintain as reality. According to Minitrue's propaganda, Airstrip One is part of a supernation called Oceania, which also consists of the British Commonwealth the Americas, and the southern half of Africa. There are two other supernations, Eastasia (Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and most of China) and Eurasia (the Soviet Union and continental Europe), and Oceania constantly changes their positions on them - meaning one minute they could say they are allied with Eastasia in a war against Eurasia, and the next minute they could say they are allied with Eurasia and have always been at war with Eastasia. The people do not question this because their conditioning to always believe the word of the Party is just that powerful.

The people of Airstrip One do not know that the world is much smaller than they believe. There are no "supernations," other than perhaps the Soviet Union, which never grew larger in this timeline than in the Main Timeline. Airstrip One is an isolated island, fighting fictional wars for the benefit of a few and the detriment of unsuspecting masses. It is essentially a Western version of North Korea, including its attachment to a larger nation and its reputation around the world as both a punchline and a tragedy.

Alignment with the United States
In this timeline, the successful installment of an ostensibly socialist system in England reignited the battle over reforms to the capitalist system in the United States. Advocates for change argued that if it could work in the mother country it could just as easily work in the United States, and already had with the New Deal policies of the recently deceased President Judson C. Hammond. Opponents thought that Airstrip One's propaganda hid a terrible reality and that such a change would give the government too much power while stripping the people of too many freedoms. Despite continued debating in the political sphere, more businesses began practicing collectivist and statist practices, a slow yet steady process that had been ongoing for years; and ambitious politicians who sought more centralized government worked to represent these interests and push socialist laws through Congress.

In response to this, a collection of the country's most influential, creative, and liberal minds conspired to rebel against these harsh measures with a strike. This strike was led by John Galt, of whom little is publicly known about before the Great Strike of 1957. What is known about him is that his father was an Ohio garage mechanic and his father's brother, Henry M. Galt, turned around the Great Midwestern Railroad into a successful and efficient rail line during the Great Depression. He used part of the fortune he acquired to help his nephew afford an education at the Patrick Henry University. However, people grew envious of his uncle's success and competitors and even organizations in the federal government tried to curtail the growth of his empire.

This backlash against a man who had only ever treated him kindly had a tremendous influence on young John Galt, who started to believe that the masses do not appreciate geniuses and all that they do for society. Undeterred, he put his heart into his work at the Twentieth Century Motor Company, where he designed a revolutionary motor that ran on static electricity. However, his project was shut down when the company owner died and his successors reorganized the factory system in a way that reminded Galt too much of what happened to his uncle. He quit and retreated to the shadows of society, where he began secretly organizing a strike.

This movement called on artists, businessmen, scientists, inventors, and the creative minds of the United States to refuse to create anything more for this unappreciative society. Among those who joined him were controversial architect Howard Roark, Daily Crusader reporter Rex Graine, pork-packing mogul Pierrepont Graham, eccentric industrialist Andrew Ryan, and arms manufacturer Anthony Stark. The goal was for people to realize how much they needed these people and therefore respect them, and for the government to stop allowing what they alleged to be communist practices in American businesses. In Galt's words, the Great Strike of 1957 was intended to "stop the motor of the world." Despite the government's brief capture of John Galt and attempts to discern the location of his hideout through torture, the Strike occurred anyway. President Merkin Muffley declared a state of emergency as the economy faced a serious downturn and riots exploded.

However, just as the situation threatened to spiral out of control, Airstrip One sent aid in the form of arms and soldiers. After the Lend-Lease Agreement and subsequent US military involvement in World War II, the former Great Britain honored the "special relationship" and assisted in breaking up the Strike with brutal force. In what would be the first of many instances of an emboldened and empowered American government taking extreme measures to repress resistance, they discovered the hideout of Galt's followers in the Uncompaghre River Valley in Colorado and captured Galt and his followers. They were tried for conspiracy and treason, and they were summarily executed.

Following these events, the United States and Airstrip One cemented their continued alliance, with the former serving as a patron to the latter, not unlike the relationship between China and North Korea.

Additional Notes
