I read this long before I had any realistic temptation to be part of any Inner Ring where I worked. Yet I had already seen this behavior in others at school, at church, in music and theater performance, and in what I could discern in arts and literature in society.
And I saw how powerful this temptation was for me already, and how much I would need to guard against it all my life.
"I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions."
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"Fighting one vice with another is about the most dangerous strategy there is. You know what happens to kingdoms that use alien mercenaries."
It was a big part of the plot of "That Hideous Strength," and rang true for me.
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