Ceci n'est pas un cliché

By definition, clichés are overused phrases that have lost their original meaning through its repetition. It's a shame, really, because many of these clichés were birthed out of original and substantially meaningful thought--only to lose such meaning through the very action that intends to advance its meaning.

For example, the phrase One for all, all for one indicates a unifying rally meant to spur a harmonized sense of identity within a certain group. It served exactly that purpose in one of its earliest recorded uses: in 1618 Prague. For those unfamiliar with European history, early 17th century Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) was a religiously contested zone with Protestant and Catholic populations who were hostile to each other. When the pro-Catholic Ferdinand II came to power, he was quick to order a halt in the construction of Protestant churches in royal lands--which understandably angered the Protestants. Their reaction was to claim, "As they also absolutely intended to proceed with the execution against us, we came to a unanimous agreement among ourselves that, regardless of any loss of life and limb, honour and property, we would stand firm, with all for one and one for all," a mentality meant to unite the Protestants against the Catholic factions--and a mentality which would help ignite tensions leading up to the Thirty Years War. Of course, I'm skipping many steps in this process. But the point is that the phrase served its purpose: to help unify the Protestants into a group with a common identity, against another faction that deemed the group with hostility.

Today, though, instead of serving its primary purpose as a unifying rally for modern-day groups (perhaps such as work project collaborations or basketball teams), the phrase One for all, all for one merely serves as a nostalgic reference to Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. There is a simple reason for this: The Three Musketeers is indeed one of the most widely-read pieces of Western literature. And although the nostalgia of the phrase refers to the unity which Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan carried with each other throughout their swashbuckling adventures, the phrase stands to refer only to this particular sense of unity, rather than an abstract sense of unity which would apply in a multitude of examples (again, like work project collaborations and basketball teams). The phrase's fame depended--and still depends--on the fame of the book.

But obviously, I am speaking about the modern cultural interpretation of One for all, all for one. Since I myself am not privy to the cultural norms of 19th century Western Europe, it could be a fair point to reason that such a phrase served its intended purpose to unify and harmonize groups during the initial spread of Dumas's book. It may be because the book has today far eclipsed any cultural norm of using the phrase that we contemporarily equate the phrase to the musketeers' motto. So let us investigate a sentiment that has only relatively recently begun to be overused.

You only live once (YOLO) is one of many aphorisms that emphasize our own mortality, essentially dismissing any notion of eternal life or reincarnation. The phrase is denotatively equivalent to several other aphorisms, the most famous of which is carpe diem (seize the day). These phrases all encourage taking risks with the reasonable assumption that there would be no other times aside from our short lives where we would be able to take such risks--and essentially, to live life not in a plain and predictable manner, but to live life in the 'fullest' way possible.

I have personally taken at heart the core denotation of these memento mori. One of my underlying principles is to always differentiate myself in everything I do, in the fear that I would be living somebody else's life--and that, consequently, I would not be living my fullest life.* It is such an extreme drive that, in almost everything I do--whether as big as choosing careers or as small as unique clothing fads--I consciously attempt to stray from the norm. My own recognition of You only live once serves as an explicit reminder of death and its eerie potential to prevent any further risk-taking or execution of actions. This is as opposed to carpe diem, which has been more of the spur towards ensuring the continual revitalization of my efforts and actions everyday. Although carpe diem is my internal engine, You live only once is just as important in its role as my external engine.

However, You only live once is a phrase that has been so saturated today by repetitive usage online that it becomes difficult to investigate it without irony or humor. And the reason for its virality is relatively simple. The phrase first resonates with the subconscious internet-curious adolescents due to its dismissal of eternal life or reincarnation. Although very few teenagers today would definitely say that this religious dismissal is why the phrase has become so engrained in their heads, it is clear to see the increasingly hostile outlook on dogmatism within the younger population. According to a Pew Research Center study on Religion in the Millennial Generation, there is a remarkably evident correlation between being born at a later time and detachment with religion. Thus, contextually, a dismissal of religion would sit right with the subconscious of these eager adolescents.

More evident, though, is the risk-taking characteristic embodied by a lot of youth. According to a study conducted by Jonathan Rolison, Yaniv Hanoch, Stacey Wood, and Pi-Ju Liu on Risk-Taking Differences Across the Adult Life Span, there is a conclusive decrease in risk-taking in the ethical, financial, health, and recreational domains as people age. This only affirms the stereotype of the carefree youth--because, even if the youth may not be exactly carefree, they are relatively more carefree than the older populations. And as a member of the youth generation, I could not agree more with the findings of this study. As opposed to the older people in my life (family members, colleagues, professors, etc.), I seem to look towards actions such as flag football and day trading with relatively more indifference. And what better way to support such risk-taking than a phrase that literally encourages such behavior?

And so, the seeds have been planted for the growth in usage of You only live once. But, instead of being a reinforcement towards willful risk-taking, the phrase has instead become a witty chic remark meant to justify recklessness and its consequences. The online propagation of the phrase allows for the adoption to the phrase into the vernacular of many adolescents--which is especially dangerous, since adolescents are those that are most inclined to adopt and do without thinking. Without reasoning the foundational core behind the phrase and adopting it properly, online teenagers have instead taken its surface-level meaning to be spiteful of the risk-aversion of the older generation. Thus, instead of encouraging their risk-taking, it encourages their rebellious disposition against those who wield power: the older generation, who just so happen to be the same contingency of the population who are risk-averse. Instead of encouraging their risk-taking, it encourages their recklessness. And there is a big difference between the two concepts. Instead of talking about conventionally risky actions (such as my examples of flag football and day trading), these teenagers would then compel themselves to take on drunk driving, promiscuity, and smoking. For example, Ervin McKinness notably tweeted "Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #Fuckit YOLO" before a fatal car accident that was due to his reckless behavior. Such reckless adoption really does have tremendously negative consequences.

However, there is a contingent of the youth population that have neither adopted the phrase as a reckless justifier nor taken it into consideration as a meaningful memento mori. These are the ones who can claim 'neutrality' when it comes to the phrase, since they did not willingly take part in the spread of the phrase at its initial conception. However, it would be remiss to say that these people are not impacted by the phrase, at least indirectly. Just like One for all, all for one, these people look onto You only live once as a bygone era of Twitter foolhardiness and stupidity. Whenever YOLO is mentioned today, it is deemed as an ironic and sarcastic remark that even the idea of investigating the phrase would be very difficult without encountering irony and dry humor. Even more than that, these people reason that because You only live once has been so widespread in our vernacular, they have already attained any necessary meaning from it. This simple fact applies to any overused clichés--it is much easier for our subconscious to adopt without thinking. So although these people have not consciously adopted You only live once like the reckless adolescents have, these youth still have it subconsciously imprinted within their minds. Even if it were not to be associated with recklessness and stupidity, the virality of the phrase has made it so that it has an obvious meaning--and it would never occur to these people to investigate the idea behind the phrase.

This is the impact that the spread of You only live once has made to these adolescents: it is now near impossible to re-adopt the original meaning of the phrase precisely because it has come to symbolize a potent form of widespread irony rather than a contentful statement. And my fear is that there are a great many of these overused clichés which have lost their intended useful meanings precisely because of their spreading. It is also why I look onto online public advice-giving with suspicion (a sentiment shared even by those very people who give online public advice)--because such information is disseminated publicly rather than privately, people tend to adopt this information subconsciously rather than consciously. And by doing so, these people would not reap the true personal benefits of the meaning behind the advice had they actually done some personal introspection with the advice (i.e. implement it as it fits their own personal lives).

A cliché is an overused phrase that has lost their original meaning through its repetition. But all it takes is a little bit of introspection to make sure we retain at least some of that meaning.

*Summarizing my sentiment on this topic in a few sentences feel like a grave injustice to the thoughts which I have cultivated for years. So expect an article in the future that fully explicates my overarching mentality on this notion.