The Inner Circle

In this writing Lewis talks about the people’s desire to be part of a group or the inner ring because nobody wants to be left outside the circle. Lewis quotes “I believe that in all men’s’ lives at certain periods, and in many men’s lives at all periods between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside.”
This is very true because in psychology we have studied that people tend to conform to a particular group. A study was conducted in a way where there were six people in the group. One person was the subject and the rest were part of the study. When the researcher asked them which line (on the board) is longer, all of the men said the shorter line was the longest. Now this was an obvious wrong answer but surprisingly the subject said the same answer along with the other men. Why? Because he wanted to get along, be a part of the group rather than an outsider or an outlier. This theory is called the group conformity.
We have experienced this in our schools. In middle school friends will threat other friends that if you do not follow or do what they are doing, then you are not part of the group anymore. So for one to be a part of the group they need to do something crazy but they still do it just to be in the group. Many times it has a negative consequence rather than a positive.
So what can we do about it?
I would say listen to your heart. Do not let the voice of others interfere with what you want but doing what the individual wants is very important. In the lasts paragraph Lewis says “The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it.” We need to break that desire to be in the inner ring because if we don’t, then it will destroy us.

“If you live for other people’s opinion, you are dead.”