The Three Musketeers in These Coronavirus Times

In March 1844, readers of a French newspaper called “Le Siècle,” The Century, discovered the first episode of a serialized novel that went on to become a blockbuster worldwide. In the first chapter they met a young nobleman named d’Artagnan whose ancient but impoverished family lived in a crumbling castle in Gascogne, closer to Spain than to the faraway capital of the Kingdom of France.

In that first chapter, d’Artagnan sets off on a cob horse for Paris, hoping to make his fortune as a musketeer of King Louis XIII. By the time he reaches the outskirts of the capital, he is on foot, with only enough money to rent a room in a garret not far from the Latin Quarter. The first time he steps outside, he literally bumps into the three musketeers. Young d’Artagnan begins by challenging them to a swordfight. Before it’s over, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, the three musketeers, and d’Artagnan have vowed to remain friends for life.

“All for one and one for all!” We all know the line and in one form or another, we know the story. Since 1844, The Three Musketeers by French novelist Alexandre Dumas has been translated throughout the world and adapted to stage and screen right into the 21st century.

“All for one and one for all!” Now there’s a motto that resonates in these coronavirus times. Another motto that comes to mind is E pluribus unum, “Out of many, one.” It dates back to the first days of American independence and appropriately, this 13-letter motto engraved on the first great seal of the United States expressed faith in the new nation born of the original 13 colonies.

In 1831, while on a mission to the United States to study the American prison system, Alexis de Toqueville, a French philosopher and political thinker, devoted most of his time to observing American society instead. The result was the two-volume study Democracy in America. One of his observations was “there’s nothing less independent than a free citizen.”

That may sound strange to the ears of a people who fought a war for independence in order to become free citizens of the United States. Yet, if we reflect upon de Tocqueville’s words, we understand that freedom is synonymous with responsibility. “All for one and one for all,” as the three musketeers would say. We’re only as strong as the weakest among us and we are responsible for each other’s care.

As the number of cases of coronavirus rises throughout the United States, as in France, health workers fight not only the virus but their own exhaustion after weeks on the job, the time may have come to think about what it means to exercise our freedom collectively.

This is what we do when we respect the rules of social distancing. We protect ourselves and most importantly, we protect others. In France, every evening at 8PM, many open their windows to applaud doctors and nurses working to save lives. Those same doctors and nurses would like their fellow citizens to applaud less and respect “confinement” more. With warm spring days upon us, too many forget and step outside, crowding city streets.

And while some of us stay home, others are at work. At the end of an interview with a doctor in a Parisian hospital overflowing with cases of Covid-19, just as the newscaster was about to sign off, the doctor asked if he could say a word more. He wanted to thank the cleaning staff of his hospital. Every day they were on the job, working in a dangerous environment with little protection. Without them work in the hospital could not go on.

Nor could we do our shopping for food without the checkers and grocery stockers working in supermarkets. Right now, more than ever we need the drivers of delivery trucks, the behind-the-scenes workers filling on-line orders, farmers producing our food and all those working in factories so we can procure the basic necessities of daily life.

All of them are free citizens working collectively, exposing themselves to danger, and doing it for us.

With the arrival of coronavirus, we’ve entered a new world and what awaits us on the other side of the pandemic, nobody can say for sure. Yet societies in Western Europe and the United States have somehow been turned upside down—and especially downside up.

Not so very long ago, French President Emmanuel Macron was calling for a “startup nation,” a nation of independent entrepreneurs with little need of government in their lives. He turned a deaf ear to the demands of the nation’s public hospital system and to its underpaid staff. Now, that public hospital system has become the backbone of the nation. Doctors, nurses and aids work tirelessly, and without them France would fall apart.

France is a highly centralized country, where the president makes decisions for the nation. The United States is a federation, where states retain certain rights. In times of crisis, however, governors look to the President for guidance. At this time, the President of the United States seems to be looking out for Number-One—not the nation, but himself.

“All for one and one for all!” Captain Brett Crozier, the former captain of the aircraft carrier "Theodore Roosevelt," understood those words when coronavirus swept through his ship and his first thoughts were for his men. For that, he lost his job. As did last Friday, April 3rd, Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, who told Congress about the Ukraine whistle-blower complaint that lead to the impeachment hearings of President Trump. Mr. Atkinson’s main concerns were the common good and the truth.

It’s not about you, Mr. President. It’s not about me. It’s about us all, free citizens who, in a time of deep worldwide crisis, must learn that our freedom is dependent on the wellbeing of each and every one of us: “All for one and one for all!”