To paraphrase Samuel Beckett, we are all born zombies. Some remains so.
The way I see it, this is the concept otherwise known as tabula rasa -- meaning we are born blank slate with no knowledge and, therefore, no consciousness. It is, then, up to the individual (and the supportive environment) to gradually develop their understanding of themselves, the world, and their place in it. To stitch together a map of the Reality and to use it to act consciously, seeing where they are, where they want to be, and how to get there. Or not -- and stay on autopilot, sleepwalking through their life, never waking up from "dogmatic slumber" in Kant's words.1
So this is the choice. Unfortunately, again, we are not born with the awareness of it. Perhaps even more unfortunate is that no one2 tells us that attaining this knowledge, this mental clarity is not only possible, but is something that every person should strive for. Unaware of this choice and this possibility, most of us never go for it -- we "remain so".
1 In reality, this a spectrum -- how much of the "map" an individual manages to complete, how mindful they are of their actions, etc.
2 No one, of course, except Heraclitus, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Spinoza, Nietzsche, and so many others -- but not our our parents, or older siblings, and not before we decide that we already know everything and slip into that "dogmatic slumber".
P.S. This comics by Daniel Dennett offers a model of a "zombie" mind (and, incidentally, of how ChatGPT and other LLMs work):