Motivation?

Why would people allow themselves to be dehumanized in the manner described by Huxley? That's my biggest question, how the 'brave new world' came into being in the first place. There's nothing 'brave' about it; anyone who would allow that to happen to themselves, their offspring, is a bleeding coward. Yellow-bellied, lily-livered, gnat-brained, godforsaken coward. For all the conclusions the story comes to, I cannot but get stuck on this question every time I read it. I can understand the 'advantages' of a system that allows corporate manufacture of consumers, but not what cataclysmic event could convince people to go along with it.