Resist the Pull of "The Inner Ring"

In 1944, CS Lewis warned the graduating class at Kings College, University of London about the human desire to be part of an “inner circle,” an elite, an exclusive group of those “in the know.” His lecture, titled “The Inner Ring” explained the dangers of becoming obsessed by the desire to gain social status through connection with perceived elites.  This dynamic is absolutely central to understanding the weaponization of loneliness.

C. S. Lewis

The craving to be part of an inner ring is virtually universal because of the natural human need to belong and to feel accepted.  But the dynamic of the inner ring is often a distortion and perversion of that natural desire.  It ends up as a form of snobbery in which gratification comes from excluding others. Worse, it causes behaviors that are destructive of others, as well as of self.

This dynamic of taking delight in exclusion is obvious in “clubs” like the World Economic Forum, the European Union, Hollywood insiders, academia, and other elitist oligarchies.  But it can also happen in seemingly more squalid settings, such as the inner rings of gangs and cults.  One example might be the desire among misguided youth looking for acceptance in the violent but organized mobs of street “protestors” like Antifa.  

In such cases, the fear of ostracism reaches a whole new level whereby those caught up in it no longer look for acceptance in the form of family and friends, but in a social pecking order that offers no warmth or true sense of belonging. In this condition you are condemned to forever walk on eggshells as you must be ever vigilant of not saying anything that could result in social rejection from your reference group.

For a “popular” high school mean girl, the threat would be censure by her clique. For a celebrity, it could come from being potentially cancelled by the Hollywood blob. For a communist who misspeaks, the threat could come from party elites who sense a traitor in their midst. The list goes on.

In every disparate case when people seek to be part of an inner ring, the goal is to be feel a part of some sort of secret club. But it’s a dead end. The result is a state of misery and even paranoia that results in being “triggered” when exposed to any other point of view.  The only solution is true friendship.