I think the game Rao thinks there is to be played in this domain is: if you keep joining “inner rings” then the support of other inner-ringers will get you promoted, paid better, given more interesting work, introduced to interesting people, etc., all of which will benefit you even if it doesn’t in the least mean that you are doing your job any better or making the world a better place.
He may well be right about that; I think Lewis takes it for granted that his audience—especially as he has begun by describing himself as a “middle-aged moralist” and told them that he is going to be warning them about a kind of temptation—understands that he doesn’t take “it will be profitable for me personally” to be sufficient reason to do something that’s spiritually corrosive and harmful to the world.
I think the game Rao thinks there is to be played in this domain is: if you keep joining “inner rings” then the support of other inner-ringers will get you promoted, paid better, given more interesting work, introduced to interesting people, etc., all of which will benefit you even if it doesn’t in the least mean that you are doing your job any better or making the world a better place.
He may well be right about that; I think Lewis takes it for granted that his audience—especially as he has begun by describing himself as a “middle-aged moralist” and told them that he is going to be warning them about a kind of temptation—understands that he doesn’t take “it will be profitable for me personally” to be sufficient reason to do something that’s spiritually corrosive and harmful to the world.