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Articles

Vol. 1 No. 1: June, 2013

TECHNO-POLITICS: PRESIDENTIAL RHETORIC AND THE AMERICAN TECHNOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY

Submitted
February 22, 2016
Published
2013-06-13

Abstract

The US American political machine has always been concerned with science and technology. This focus strengthened following World War II as the US government substantially increased funding and work force to support basic and applied research as a major means to compete with and defend against other nations. An army of people now exists within the federal government whose job is to maintain our scientific and technological superpower status. Borrowing from the notion of the rhetorical presidency, this paper discusses the rise of the techno-political presidency in American politics. More specifically, the analysis closely analyzes Truman‟s “Bombing of Hiroshima†speech, examines significant Presidential scientific and technological discourse since, and speculates upon the implications of such a focus for our political future. This case highlights an important, but neglected area of rhetorical study—significant enough to warrant attention as a rhetorical sub-genre.
Keywords: Presidential discourse, Rhetoric of technology, Political mythology, Genre, United States of America
“Like all mythology in a politically conscious age, the idea of an electrical utopia can be and is exploited by established institutions . . . . Technology finally serves the very military and industrial policies it was supposed to prevent†(Cary and Quirk, 1970).

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