American mythology loves nothing more than the reluctant hero: the man -- it is usually a man -- whose natural talents have destined him for more than obliging obscurity. George Washington, we are told, was a leader who would have preferred to have been a farmer. Thomas Jefferson, a writer. Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher. These men were roused from lives of perfunctory achievement, our legends have it, not because they chose their own exceptionalism, but because we, the people, chose it for them. We -- seeing greatness in them that they were too humble to observe themselves -- conferred on them uncommon paths. Historical circumstance became its own call of duty, and the logic of democracy proved itself through the answer.

Neil Armstrong was a hero of this stripe: constitutionally humble, circumstantially noble. Nearly every obituary written for him has made a point of emphasizing his sense of privacy, his sense of humility, his sense of the ironic ordinary. And yet every aspect of Armstrong’ s life made clear: On that day in 1969, he acted on our behalf, out of a sense of mission that was communal rather than personal. The reluctant hero is also the self-sacrificing hero.

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美國神話最愛的莫過于不情愿的英雄：天賦注定他無法默默無聞。據(jù)說，領(lǐng)袖喬治·華盛頓其實更愿意當農(nóng)民，托馬斯·杰斐遜寧愿當個作家，而馬丁·路德·金更想當一名傳教士。我們的傳奇故事里說，這些人之所以能脫離平庸，不是因為他們選擇卓越，而是因為我們——民眾——為他們做出了選擇。他們因為太過謙卑而看不到自己的偉大之處，而我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了，于是賦予了他們不平凡的道路。歷史機緣成為使命的召喚，而民主的邏輯通過答案證明了自身。

尼爾·阿姆斯特朗就屬于這類英雄：本性謙卑，因為境遇而高貴。幾乎每篇訃告都強調(diào)他的隱私意識、謙卑意識和平凡意識——一種具有諷刺意味的“平凡”。但是，阿姆斯特朗生活的方方面面都表明：1969年的那一天，他為我們而行動，他的行為出于社會使命感而非個人意愿。不情愿的英雄也是自我犧牲的英雄。

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