The Inner Ring

Presented as an oration at the University of Lodon, Lewis' "The Inner Ring," is a piece of advice to graduates about the world. Even though I still have (hopefully) a couple few years until graduation, I found Lewis' advice to be helpful and even began noticing its existence around me.
What Lewis describes as the "Inner Ring," is a social phenomenon of a certain special group of people. Tolstoi calls it the second or unwritten system. Lewis points out the longing and desire that everyone has to be included.

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.

Lewis really does a great job emphasizing how bad it must feel to be left out.

Often the desire conceals itself so well that we hardly recognize the pleasures of fruition. . . . A terrible bore... Ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free because you don't matter, that is much worse.

Lewis discusses the nature of these Inner Rings. He says that they are in themselves, not a bad thing, because through these groups, friendships are found and bonds are formed. If your group simply consists of people who share similar interests, then the group can be a good thing. However, if they exist simply to exclude other people, its a whole different matter. Lewis writes:

But your genuine Inner Ring exists for exclusion. There'd be no fun if there were no outsiders. The invisible line would have no meaning unless most people were on the wrong side of it. Exclusion is no accident; it is the essence.

In my experience, I've found myself to be on both sides of Inner Rings. My youth group back home is a youth-led ministry, with a core group of teenagers leading the weekly activities, known as the Core. As I first attended the youth group, the leaders were seen as almost elite Christians, though I'm sure they don't feel it themselves. The more I attended, the more I was involved with the youth group and was eventually invited to be a part of the new group as the seniors graduated. I must say I wasn't really drawn in by the desire to be included. But during my time of leadership there, there were moments where one or more members of the team were somewhat deliberately excluding people outside of the Inner Ring.