his shows the narrator's inclination towards selfishness. He changes his goals and only makes plans with keeping himself in mind. The people who are there already who are described as "friends" are actually others who have given up on helping others and only strive towards fulfilling their own selfish desires. They welcome the narrator to come and sit among them and to accept his fate as one of them but the narrator doesn't want to. He realizes that the place is not the right one to go in life and only represents selfishness and stagnation. It is odd to think of the people there as selfish because they are so willing and seem almost happy to offer the narrator a seat among them. This is done with malicious intent though and would only serve to drag the narrator down to their level to live with the same torment they have for abandoning their friends and family. They only want to give him a seat so that there will be one more poor soul to be trapped with them for all eternity. The people who are there will never experience true love or friendship ever again in their life because they have given up on others and only exist to strive towards their own goals that they have set for themselves. Their wild abandonment of those who have cared for them or knew them will lead them down a path that will result in them being left alone forever and friendless. Anyone who can be fooled to leave the right path by the artificial smiles of fake friends and a nice chair deserves to be alone in the end. Friends, family, and those who care about you are more important than any personal, material, or financial advancements that you can make in the world.