Once we valued higher goals than ourselves. I don’t know if younger generations have seen Casablanca, but those of us who have remember Rick’s lines at the climax:

Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then and it all adds up to one thing. You’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.

You’ve got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we’d both wind up in a concentration camp.

I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick: We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we’d lost it, until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.

I’ve got a job to do too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble. But it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

Someday you’ll understand that. Now, now. Here’s looking at you, kid.

Today we care more about our hills of beans than the world. We could aspire to put the world’s needs before our own.

Instead, we fly because we want to see Machu Piccu or go to a party. We choose to live flying distance away from loved ones so we can use the excuse of seeing them to fly. In other words, we indulge our whims and abdicate responsibility.

What happened to Rick? He inspired Louis to leave Vichy and join him in his fight to save the free world, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

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