Accidental rhetoric: The root metaphors of three mile Island

Even though the communication practices at Three Mile Island confounded advocates and critics alike, the root assumptions of this discourse have remained unexamined. This essay theorizes, however, that much of contemporary communication tends to withhold its presuppositions from ready critical access. Accordingly, it may remain for a rhetorical crisis to disclose for us the limits of our most ordinary activities. Our contention is that Three Mile Island presented such a crisis. In actuality, if not intent, the inadequacies of accidental rhetoric at Three Mile Island point to a failure larger than the technical breakdown of 1979: the failure of technical reason itself to offer communication practices capable of mastering the problems of our age. The essay begins by examining three inclusive world views which have gradually advanced the power of technical reason over social concerns in general and nuclear power in particular. Following a detailed reconstruction of the discourse at Three Mile Island, the essay concludes by critiquing the visions of public competence and conduct implied by this discourse. Our overall conclusion is that the limits of technical communicative discourse are severe, recurrent, and perhaps irreparable.