The Inner Ring

I enjoyed this essay very much and thought that Lewis brought up a great point about people and there desire to be included. An inner ring refers to a "circle" of friends, basically a group that hangs out together. Lewis discusses the problems that these inner rings can present. Everyone wants to feel like they are part of something and people want them to be around. In order to be accepted into a certain group people will do many things they would not do otherwise. It could be because they want to be considered popular or increase their status. Whatever it may be, people seem to disregard what would seem sensible in order to be apart of one ring or another. This is exactly what Lewis is trying to warn us about in this essay. This quote explains it well, “Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.” However, there is a counter to the pressure of being in a certain ring. The first thing that is most important is that people should not do anything they wouldn't ordinarily do just to get in a ring. A ring of friends should just come naturally with no extra effort. People with similar personalities and values will instinctively gravitate towards each other eventually. When you start to ignore this principle, and try to get into rings by going against your values is when Lewis says you become a scoundrel.

Another point that Lewis makes that I also agree with is that these inner rings are not necessarily bad things. It is good to have a circle of true friends that you can trust and spend time with. There are both good and bad rings, so it is up to you what rings that you should be apart of. We as humans have been given by God a desire for intimacy, so it is important to experience "storge" with a group of friends. We just have to make sure this desire is not trying to be fulfilled through the wrong people.