Who here's read Aldouse Huxley's "Brave New World."

Those of you that have, I'm sure you can recalll the Soma, and all the brainwashing to make people perfect for their jobs, and happy doing it. Everybody was genetically engineered to have a precise niche in society.

And they were all happy, except for a few.

And their was the nature reserve where the savages lived. When the savage left the reserve he clashed with their society. He saw their pleasure drugs as poison, and he despised how easy their lives were. Because of conditioning doing their job was following the path of least resistance.

I so relate to the savage who prefered a life of trials were failure is possible. He chose to live through discipline, have a hard life. He was more self sufficeint, and a much more "human" character. I'd have to agree with Mr. Huxley, a life with highs and lows, ecstacy and horror, is much better then a life were everythings is given to you, and happyness is a bottle of pills. It bother me that people can sometimes live with so little passion.

I'd skip the suicidal depression, given the choice. My character only needs so much *building*.