On The Unsung Heros

I found many gems in N. Taleb's works. For example, in
"A New Kind of Ingratitude" from "The Black Swan," he
wrote

        ... But there are even more mistreated heroes—the
        very sad category of those who we do not know were
        heroes, who saved our lives, who helped us avoid
        disasters. They left no traces and did not even know
        that they were making a contribution. ... This is a
        far more vicious kind of ingratitude: the feeling of
        uselessness on the part of the silent hero.

This stroke a chord with me. Since I was young, often
when I heard some great person did some great things, I
couldn't stop thinking of the vast number of "nameless"
people who made no less contribution or sacrificed even
more but got no reward or recognition.

Years ago, I debated a similar point in response to the blog article
blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/14895/201306/17878.html
singing high praise of Mrs. Stanford who, in her later
years, sold her jewlry to save the famous University. My
point was not that the lady was not great nor the act
ignoble but, considering that she lost her son and the U was
her only legacy, I proposed that the vast majority of
Chinese moms who devote their love and life to their kids
might be greater and nobler. In other words, in overly
exhalting Mrs. Stanford, we ran the risk of belittling and
committed ingratitude toward the real McCoys.