
The Inner Ring (1944) - hugs
http://www.lewissociety.org/innerring.php
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lxt
This is one of my all time favorite essays. Great to see it linked here. Best
part: 'To nine out of ten of you the choice which could lead to scoundrelism
will come, when it does come, in no very dramatic colours. Obviously bad men,
obviously threatening or bribing, will almost certainly not appear. Over a
drink, or a cup of coffee, disguised as triviality and sandwiched between two
jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting
to know rather better and whom you hope to know better still—just at the
moment when you are most anxious not to appear crude, or naïf or a prig—the
hint will come. It will be the hint of something which the public, the
ignorant, romantic public, would never understand: something which even the
outsiders in your own profession are apt to make a fuss about: but something,
says your new friend, which “we”—and at the word “we” you try not to blush for
mere pleasure—something “we always do.”'

~~~
wyclif
Also one of my all-time fave essays! Pleasantly surprised to see it on HN. I'm
a huge Inklings nerd.

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erbo
This is a point which Lewis explored in fiction, through the trials of Mark
Studdock in _That Hideous Strength._ Studdock has tried all his life to become
part of that "Inner Ring," whether as a schoolboy, as part of the "Progressive
Element" at Bracton, or in the (very ironically acronymmed) N.I.C.E., but, in
the process, he has compromised a large part of himself, including his
relationship with his wife.

(This is the third book in the "Space Trilogy," but it's the one that has the
least to do with "space." Instead, it's chock full of Lewis' philosophies; the
central theme of the story is straight out of _The Abolition of Man._ )

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paragraft
I read an excellent biography/history on Kim Philby
([http://www.amazon.com/Spy-Among-Friends-Philby-Betrayal-
eboo...](http://www.amazon.com/Spy-Among-Friends-Philby-Betrayal-
ebook/dp/B00ID7N356/)) where the author drew on this essay in an attempt to
explain Philby's motives for treason.

Born as a shoe-in into the establishment, the UK's inner ring if ever there
was one, Philby wasn't satisfied with that, he had to be on the inner ring of
the Intelligence community, and even that wasn't enough. He wanted to be (the
author argues) on the inside, a club of one, by turning traitor and giving
secrets to the Soviets. The great paradox about him as the author explained
was while he was betraying he erstwhile stood for, he was still a great fan of
all these institutions he joined. Even in exile in Moscow he wore his school
tie, he followed 'his' cricket club, and he still seemed to think of his
colleagues as friends. The bitter irony being for him there of course, he
wasn't even trusted there by his Moscow masters, they always suspicious that
he was a grand triple-agent in a British masterstroke.

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npsimons
A very good essay! What's interesting is that I have this vision of Richard
Stallman as one of those people who has lived that conscious life and avoided
inner rings, by standing by his principles.

