Critique of New Commonplaces: “I Was Born This Way”

This is the first entry in what I hope will be a series of close examinations of several assumptions underlying contemporary public culture and discourse. The title of the series is indebted to Jacques Ellul, whose 1968 sociological tome shares the same name. In his work, Ellul systematically dismantles more than 30 axioms that held power over western thought in the 20th century. Needless to say, the scope of this series will be far less sweeping – in particular, because I am primarily interested in analyzing commonplaces that have influence in student life and classroom pedagogy. With that said, because these commonplaces are cultural in nature, it is also my hope that readers will see applications that extend beyond my initial inquiry and into other fields of study.

Every age has its commonplaces. These are the slogans, the cliches, the ready-made explanations that seep into the collective consciousness of society. They have an air of self-evidence. And as such, they are often accepted without discussion or debate and then proliferated through newspapers, television, popular music, art, literature, psychology, philosophy, and interpersonal exchanges. This widespread dissemination gives commonplaces a universal recognition, which, in turn, fuels their perceived self-evidence.

It is because of this self-evidence that commonplaces are seldom thought or spoken of explicitly. Once ingrained in a society, they become presuppositions upon which public thought and speech are constructed. Like a native language, they become internalized to the point where we use them without conscious thought.

But there are rare moments when commonplaces are made manifest in public discourse. And for whatever reason – I suspect it has something to do with the relative bias of Top 40 radio against nuance and subtlety – pop music currently stands as an overt stronghold of commonplace sloganeering, masterfully rendered under the guise of creative expression. A cursory scan through a few select radio stations reveals a glut of throbbing bass riffs and tinny synthesizers layered beneath soaring, auto-tuned advertisements for our modern commonplaces. Naturally, the hooks are strong enough to convince most listeners that they are experiencing a thundering pop anthem. In reality, they are ingesting a sermon.

Of course, this is not to suggest that pop singers have any realization that they are complicit in the spread of these commonplaces. By their nature, commonplaces are so deeply rooted in our collective understanding of the world that they often take on the appearance of truth. They influence political decisions, the arts, and interpersonal interactions without detection. As such, when a musician creates a song that proclaims, “I was born this way!” she believes herself to be communicating something factual, and the listeners, in turn, understand the message to be factual. And so long as no one upsets this pattern of cooperative delusion, the commonplace will continue to stand.

But anything that presents itself as fundamentally true deserves to be fundamentally questioned. And the commonplace, “I was born this way,” appears in public discourse with enough frequency to warrant closer scrutiny. The most blatant rendering is the recent Lady Gaga single, “Born This Way,” but this song is only one among many  that explicitly  affirms the assumption inherent in the cliche.

The idea behind this commonplace is one of self-acceptance. When someone says, “I was born this way,” he or she exercises an awareness of self. And this awareness includes both individual strengths and individual weaknesses. A person can use the reply, “I was born this way” to explain both her triumphant success as a dancer and her humiliating failure as a painter. In both contexts, the commonplace suggests that there is something innate about a person’s strengths and weaknesses, that these are inseparable from a person’s identity, and that the sooner we acknowledge this, the sooner we can accept ourselves for who we truly are.

But the commonplace goes further: not only does it require acknowledgment of individual identity, it demands celebration of it. Another contemporary pop song reinforces this when it says, “Raise your glass if you’re all wrong in all the right ways.” The implication is that since we are all born this way, we must celebrate our differences, our uniqueness, our strengths, our weaknesses. If anyone questions why we do what we do, say what we say, think what we thing, we have our response: “I was born this way!” Indeed, according to the commonplace, those who do not adopt this mindset and celebrate their identity are being insincere with themselves. And insincerity is one of the cardinal sins of modern living.

On the surface, there is very little to argue with here. In fact, I suspect many educators would be satisfied if all of their students were to fully adopt the “I was born this way” frame of mind. We have seen the bullying, self-mutilation, depression, and alienation that have plagued generations of students who have not recognized their inherent worth, who have not been able to accept themselves for who they are. For these students, the message “I was born this way” is empowering. It lets teenagers be comfortable with their strengths, weaknesses, impulses, and desires without fear of judgment or failure.

And yet, upon closer examination, it is a double-edged sword. How often has the phrase, “I was born this way” been used to defend against experiences that have potential to help students grow? After all, the same commonplace that encourages the celebration of those aspects of our identity that come naturally to us, implicitly calls upon us to show hostility towards those activities that are not innate, that require risk and work. It is for this reason that teachers should not be surprised when students say, “I’m not much of a math person,” “I’m terrible at writing,” or “History is boring.” Such statements say far less about the subjects or the students’ abilities than they do about the students’ perceptions of their abilities. Under the reign of this commonplace, all that does not come naturally is to be ignored. And as school is largely a place where students encounter things they do not learn naturally, this commonplace is at odds with effective education.

In a sense, the “I was born this way” commonplace is in direct opposition to the traditional ecclesiastical imperative to “be made new.” Rather than encouraging growth, it fixates on the infantile. Indeed, “I was born this way” is really another way of saying, “Who I am today is the same as when I was born!” Such an attitude rejects any discussion of who I want to become – it is more important to celebrate the self I am now! It scorns the idea of personal growth – the very idea suggests that I am dissatisfied with who I am ! And it mocks any attempts to turn weaknesses into strengths – doing so would mean pretending to be something I am not!

But in truth, pretending to be something we are not is how we grow. Students “put on the role of a professional writer” when they imitate a favorite author’s style. In doing this, they are able to appropriate elements of different writers so that they can find their own voice. In the same way, C.S. Lewis says, “Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you have it already. That is why children’s games are so important. They are always pretending to be grown-ups – playing soldiers, playing shop. But all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits so that the pretense of being grown-up helps them to grow up in earnest.”

The “I was born this way” commonplace is incompatible with this sort of personal growth. Those who are preoccupied only with being sincere in who they are today will have no scaffolding to become that which they would like to be tomorrow. Though the world cries out otherwise, we would do well to remember the warning of Howard Campbell, the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night, “We are what we pretend to be.” It is only those willing to “be made new,” to set challenging goals, and combat obstacles with creative and intellectual ingenuity, who will succeed in preserving civilization. Without them, we devolve into a community of children, naively celebrating our own childishness.

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