The concept of an inner ring is pretty simple. I think that a clique of friends in high school can fit into what is called an inner ring. There is nothing wrong with having a close group of friends and there is nothing wrong with an inner ring, as Lewis points out. Lewis says that "the existence of an inner ring in (not) Evil. It is certainly avoidable." I found this quote to be interesting because Lewis says many things about these so called inner rings, and it seems like most of what he says about them are negative. It was good when he pointed out that not all inner rings are evil, and I agree with that. I think that a clique of friends is not evil at all, in fact I think that it is good to have a good group of friends that you can trust and enjoy hanging out with. I do believe that a clique can become evil though when the group, or certain members, won't allow others to join the group. When a clique discriminates against someone or other people I think then that clique is acting evil.
I think we are all member of inner rings, whether we know it or not. The more I think about it, the more I figure out that I am in many different inner rings. I am in the inner ring for my floor, and because I am on the baseball team I am in the baseball inner ring group. There are many more examples, and many more that I don't even really know about.
Another quote by Lewis that struck me was when he used the analogy of peeling an onion to get into an inner ring. He says, "You are trying to peel an onion: if you succeed there will be nothing left. Until you conquer your fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remian." I found this quote to be true for the most part. In my experiences I have found that when you try really hard to get into a group and you are afraid that you won't make it into the group, then if you actually do make it in it isn't as great as you thought it would be and you feel like you don't belong there. If this is the case then you still feel like an outsider because you feel out of place.
One final part of this essay that I liked was when Lewis said, "You yourself, once you are in, want to make it hard for the next entrant, just as those who are already in made it hard for you." When we discussed this essay in class one of my group members used the example of freshmen in high school. When we were freshmen we all, generally speaking, got mocked by the upperclassmen just because we were freshmen. When we became upperclassmen, generally speaking again, wegave the freshmen hard times just because we got the same treatment when we were their age. I think this is a very good example of what Lewis was talking about, and I think that it is unfortunate that this is the case in many high schools.
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I also appreciated that Lewis made clear that Inner Rings are not all bad. It's your motivation for such a ring and why you want to get into it that can be the problem. I also appreciated your analogy to the upper classmen vs the freshmen, and the cycle that we continue as the freshman becomes an upperclassman and excludes the new freshman, beginning the cycle all over.
ReplyDeleteI like how you make sure to differentiate between a good and bad clique. Cliques are going to be there no matter what, however, we must make sure, like you said, to make them as open as possible. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, you are right about the issue of being a freshman and then an upperclassmen, although I think we all know we enjoyed picking on the freshman senior year. A very guilty and wrong admission, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the more we try to get into a clique, the more we will feel like an outsider. And I think this is because the goal of getting into a clique, to feel comfortable, can't really be achieved simply by being a part of a group.
ReplyDeleteI agree that inner rings are not evil at all. It is important to have a close group of friends and it all depends on whether the ring is a good or bad ring. Your conscience should tell you if an inner ring is a good or bad one. To avoid joining the bad rings, you should never do anything that you would not do otherwise. Do not be pressured into going against your own values.
ReplyDeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteI agree that rings can be very good things. Also, we must be very careful to keep them that way, because they can easily turn into something bad. We must keep Christ the center of all our friendships in order to keep this from happening.