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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美国神话最爱的莫过于不情愿的英雄：天赋注定他无法默默无闻。据说，领袖乔治·华盛顿其实更愿意当农民，托马斯·杰斐逊宁愿当个作家，而马丁·路德·金更想当一名传教士。我们的传奇故事里说，这些人之所以能脱离平庸，不是因为他们选择卓越，而是因为我们——民众——为他们做出了选择。他们因为太过谦卑而看不到自己的伟大之处，而我们发现了，于是赋予了他们不平凡的道路。历史机缘成为使命的召唤，而民主的逻辑通过答案证明了自身。

尼尔·阿姆斯特朗就属于这类英雄：本性谦卑，因为境遇而高贵。几乎每篇讣告都强调他的隐私意识、谦卑意识和平凡意识——一种具有讽刺意味的“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，他为我们而行动，他的行为出于社会使命感而非个人意愿。不情愿的英雄也是自我牺牲的英雄。

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