Well, I thought that this part of Brave New World was very interesting. It seems that it showed the perfect total state, and really the most frightening vision of the future I have ever seen. In virtually every totalitarian senario, real or fictional, it seems that there has at least been the potential of people overthrowing their government. But, if like in BNW, humans can be genetically engineered & socially conditioned, then their instincts could be changed, so that they would have no urge to free themselves. Even the social conditioning seems to have the potential to do this, at least partially- if you look at what groups like the Khmer Rouge did, people can be conditioned to totally ignore their moral instincts. I agree with Eitan that the people and their society seemed fake, but ultimatly, all society & civilization is fake- an artificial construct. I think that their society's diametrical opposition to ours is what really makes it seem so fake. In the end, I think that this is the real danger to the modern world. If we loose all perspective, we really could become as bad as the Khmer Rouge, or the Nazis, or the people of Brave New World. I mean, if any of these groups had taken over the entire world, would people have really kept on trying to oppose them after some point? If they had known nothing but a world where everything else, like our world, was portrayed as perverse and "fake", would they know to do so?
-Tim