The idol with the feet of clay

I'm watching Being Human now and there's a situation that I find fascinating.

It's been done before, I know, and it's been done before, but it works like this: in the show, the guy who is considered the leader of the vampires is trying to get them to swear off drinking blood. He recruits another vampire, a very old one who is wel known and admired by the others, to take the pledge. (He modeled the whole thing after Alcoholics Anonymous--which gave me a good chuckle.) This vampire is apparently gung-ho for the idea of going dry. He speaks at the meetings about it, about the struggle, and how they have to be strong and keep fighting the urge. The others are inspired by his example and are actually managing to do it.

But the truth is, this guy isn't dry--he's conspiring with the leader to continue drinking blood. The others don't know it. It's something the lead vampire thinks is necessary--he really hates himself for doing it but doesn't see where he has a choice.

What I find interesting is this: even though this guy, this powerful figure, was not able to live up to what he was preaching others were, by following what they thought was his example. By him pretending to have the strength to fight the craving the others actually found the strength. Even though his life was a lie, that lie was helping lots of others fight and start winning a hard-fought battle.

So, the lie was helping others, perhaps even thousands of others in the long run. But it's still a lie.

The show doesn't explore it in quite the detail that I would but isn't it just rife with potential? Maybe I'll do something with that at some point. There's a lot here that interests me. It's a subject I've thought about for a long time.