There is no offence more heinous as unorthodoxy of behaviour. Why is this so in Brave New World?How can this statement apply to today’s world?

Unorthodoxy of behaviour still strikes at the heart of our
society. While those of us who live in democratic societies have the freedom to
self-construct our identities (unlike those in the World State) one cannot deny that
there are societal and behavioural expectations placed on people, and if they do not
follow them, eyebrows are raised.

For example, while it is
no longer unconventional for new university graduates to move back home for a period of
time to offset the financial costs of education, if this person continues to live in
his/her parents' home in their late 30s or early 40s, society will pass judgment on
him/her. New graduates are expected to either pursue a successful career, build a
family, or both. When one does not meet this criteria, society intrinsically will look
down on that individual as someone who has failed at the game of life, so to
speak.

Another example, in a high school context, would be
a student who does not act in accordance to the social expectations set up by his/her
peers and is rejected because of it. This could be because of clothes, musical tastes,
behaviour, or pretty much anything. While adolescents today undoubtedly want to
establish an individual identity, they don't want to be “too different”, because then
they would risk being rejected by their peers. We've all see examples of this during our
high-school careers, whenever that may have been.

While
these societal expectations are no where near as rigid as those in the World State, one
should recognize that they still exist. Yes there are rebels, and those that veer off
the beaten path, but they are called rebels because their actions represent the
counter-culture and strike at the heart of society's expectations for the
individual.