Authenticity and Ethics

You really strike a "raw never" good and hard in your analysis of the first case study.  It is this.  Our society is growing weary, sick of "fakes, phonies, and frauds" who deceive us, over and over and over.  Pollster John Zogby has  identified a powerful trend in America toward "authenticity."  This means we want simple, up-front honesty.  Deception insults our human dignity, personal worth, and turns us into a "means" to another's "ends."  Kant, the philosopher, argues it is unethical to reduce people to means, for humans are the ends of actions, if they are ethical.  In case two, you underscore the dignity of the individual, regardless of the desires, wishes, needs of the group.  In effect, you see the limits of Utilitarianism, which says whatever is good for the majority is good for all.  As you observe, this is wrong.  It debases, devalues individual worth.  Thanks for restating key ethical challenges for us at all times, for we will never achieve "heaven on earth," so we need to remain alert to what is unethical, as you do here.  Thank you.   Dr. Rux