When corrupted, the best does not become imperfect or half corrupted but the very opposite. When values like honesty, chastity, etc. are not perfect, they are not honoured at all. Idealism partly qualifies for this high standard but not always.
In 1943 a brilliant young man after ten years of unemployment was employed as a lecturer in a university. In a few years, his idealism prompted him, the junior-most employee, to set himself on a mission of reforming his institution. His job was at sake; even his life was. His was a contract job for five years. He was remarkably successful. He became a Member of the Senate, the Academic Council and he sat on the Syndicate too. He knew he would lose his job and he did at the expiry of the contract. He was the hero of the campus as an idealist of a high order. His idealism made him close to the students whom he addressed as 'Sir', in an effort at equality.
One of his students who was part of his campaign against the institution was also an idealist who admired his teacher for his courage, idealism and nobility of character. All great qualities press for their own compensation. This idealist lecturer was often approached by his admiring crowd of students to secure a pass they had not deserved. He happily acceded and in his 'generosity' gave them II class while they had really failed. The idealist student was sore with him on this score, but it was not for him to pass a judgement on the teacher, being an elder.
The student's rigidity was silently laughed at by his idealist mentor. Two of his children became doctors and a third an engineer. The last son was put in B.Sc., as the father ran out of resources in his retired life. The doctor son was lost to the daughter-in-law. The last son became sour and hostile and never attended classes as he was not in B.E. He refused to meet the father, turned a loafer and was a potential psychological time bomb. The father begged him to SIT for the examination so that he could get a degree for the prodigal son, as he had passed numerous students of his. The son stoutly refused. How could the idealist know that when he was indulging his students, he was only totally spoiling the whole career of his own son?