Faulty Phrases: "Only Human"

Authors

Jaret Kanarek, Illinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow

Abstract

After a forceful lesson demonstrating his incompetence as a green lantern, Hal Jordan, the hero of 2011's blockbuster Green Lantern, claims, ''I'm done. He's right. I'm only human" (IMDB, 2011). This anti-man attitude pervades the movie, and seems warranted given the portrayal of a reality in which there are non -human species capable of accomplishing feats incomprehen­sible to mankind. Unfortunately, this anti-man attitude is not limited to the realm of fantasy and science fiction where the facts of reality, i.e. laws of logic and physics, have no bearing. For millennia, this attitude has been just as prevalent in the earthly world in which men reside, and has arrived on the doorstep of today's culture in the form of the bromide: "only hu­man:'

Recommended Citation

Kanarek, Jaret (2012) "Faulty Phrases: "Only Human"," The Intellectual Standard: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/tis/vol1/iss2/4