Inner Turmoil: Sacrificing Integrity for External Harmony

When a person faces the necessity to adhere to external norms, they find themselves in a situation where the personal “I” is forced to undergo trials. In this struggle between inner convictions and the demand for social harmony, one usually has to sacrifice something truly valuable—be it sincere love, deep personal truths, or creative self-expression.

The essence of this dilemma lies in the fact that renouncing personal principles for the sake of external order leads to inner discord. The choice between preserving individual integrity and maintaining collective ideals becomes an agonizing trial that triggers incessant tension and anxiety. This inner conflict not only distances a person from their true self but also creates a sense of having lost something immeasurably important, something that nourishes the soul.

In the end, when individual values are sacrificed for societal and patriotic ideals, a period of internal struggle ensues, marked by the painful loss of personal perfection. The recognition of such a choice inevitably leads to a moral crisis, prompting the question: what is more important—external harmony or the inner light that allows one to be oneself? This dilemma serves as a reminder that true happiness begins with preserving and respecting one’s own essence.

What kind of inner struggle may arise for a person when they sacrifice their principles in the name of preserving the external world?

When a person renounces their own principles in order to maintain external order, they are confronted with the agonizing choice between internal values and their duty to the world, giving rise to a profound inner struggle. In this situation, the conflict stems from having to sacrifice one important value (for example, sincere love, personal truth, or creative self-expression) for the sake of another—societal, patriotic, or social ideals. This leads to a feeling of loss of integrity, a painful sense of self-abnegation, and often a form of spiritual cruelty toward oneself.

As noted in one of the sources, “And thus, the tragedy of moral life—as has already been mentioned—is not so much in the confrontation of good and evil, the divine and the diabolical, but rather in the clash of one good with another, one value against another value—love for God and love for man, love for one’s country and love for one’s dear ones, love for science or art and love and pity for human beings, etc. ... A person sometimes sacrifices his calling in the pursuit of knowledge or art in the name of religious values, in the name of an ascetic endeavor and the attainment of high personal perfection; then, sometimes sacrifices personal perfection for the sake of a poet’s or philosopher’s creativity. ... A person sometimes sacrifices love, in which he sees the greatest value and good, in the name of another order of values, in the name of preserving a uniquely understood freedom, in the name of familial bonds, in the name of pity for other people suffering from this love.” (source: link )

Thus, sacrificing one’s principles to preserve external order results in a complex sense of moral discord, where not only an external good is at stake, but also the true self—with its inner convictions, love, and pursuit of personal perfection.