The Inner Ring (1944)

http://www.lewissociety.org/innerring.php

by apsec112 • 10 years ago

85 13 10 years ago

lewissociety.org

kwijibob• 10 years ago

A wonderful essay. Have read and reread many times over the years.

nihilist11• 10 years ago

Can you summarise that?

beters• 10 years ago

Thanks for sharing. This is what resonated with me the most:

It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free because you don’t matter, that is much worse.

Animats• 10 years ago

That follows Wilde's quip that "the trouble with socialism is that it takes too many evenings."

thret• 10 years ago

"The painless death of a pious relative at an advanced age is not an evil. But an earnest desire for her death on the part of her heirs is not reckoned a proper feeling, and the law frowns on even the gentlest attempts to expedite her departure." - No matter how much I disagree with C.S.Lewis on matters of religion or morality, I simply adore the way he puts words together.

wyclif• 10 years ago

"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."

This essay originated as the Memorial Lecture at King’s College, University of London. Absolutely essential reading. I discovered it as an undergrad and it's possibly more relevant today than it was in 1944.

dumb-saint2• 10 years ago

Would I be correct in thinking that most participation in HN is driven by the desire to enter inner rings as the ones described in this text? (e.g. access to VC money)

Terr_2• 10 years ago

Perhaps, but another ring is to be a "real developer" in profession, or a "real contributor" to some project.

Others, meanwhile, want to ever the ring of "anti-VC-establishment enlightened", etc.

And somr just want the fleeting ring of "highly-rated commenters", but they are a silly lot with no self-awareness. :P

dumb-saint2• 10 years ago

Good answer, although I would argue that rings in the sense that the author describes confer money and status. Rings that only give you monopoly money, such as HN points, are not really going to lead you to compromise your integrity. They are not really rings in the author's sense, they are just silly games or pastimes.

VC money, on the other hand, is real money... And you need "introductions" to get it. They almost outright admit that the entire thing is an inner ring.

pierrec• 10 years ago

First of all, my interpretation of Lewis' essay is very different from what you're implying: money, power, and material things are tangential to his point. The rings are a form of social interaction, that in itself motivates you to "do very bad things". Your desire to form part of the elite-like group is what coerces you, not your desire for potential rewards. So monopoly money is more than enough to create such a situation, and I'd even say that's one of the main points of the text.

That being said, I don't think that dreams of higher rings motivate participation here. Some, perhaps. But most comments I see, even those I don't like, appear to be driven by curiosity, shared interests, and simple desire to express one's generally incorrect opinion. There is definitely a rampant sense of smug elitism, but that's more of a dead end than the entrance to a rabbit hole.

dang• 10 years ago

I don't believe so. Our model is that people come here to find interesting things.

Jenya_• 10 years ago

“Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.”

―Sydney J. Harris

http://izquotes.com/quote/343900

The Inner Ring (1944)

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