C.S. Lewis: The Inner Ring

Before you and I were born, C.S. Lewis gave an address to a group of students, on the topic of “The Inner Ring”:

There are no formal admissions or expulsions. ... The only certain rule is that the insiders and outsiders call it by different names. From inside it may be designated, in simple cases, by mere enumeration: it may be called “You and Tony and me.” When is very secure and comparatively stable in membership it calls itself ‘we.Â’ When it has to be expanded to meet a particular emergency it calls itself “all the sensible people at this place.” From outside, if you have dispaired of getting into it, you call it “That gang” or “they” or “So-and-so and his set” or “The Caucus” or “The Inner Ring.”

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Lewis first examines the phenomenon and how it affects individuals, then explains what he believes is the correct reaction to it. It bears repeated reading, whether or not you agree with his conclusions.