Reagan, romance and technology: A critique of “star wars”

Abstract

The tension between the citizen and the expert is a hallmark of the information society. The innovations of technology impinge upon the social order. Social goals threaten technological advance. Sometimes solutions in the technological sphere become problems for the political sphere, threatening the legitimacy of the political culture. Can the claims of romantic civic nationalism be reconciled to the imperatives of technological advance? The authors believe that Ronald Reagan s SDI speech represents an ambitious attempt to merge these spheres. In “Star Wars,” a technological solution to a politically intractable problem is offered within the root American idiom of romantic discourse. Reagan's rhetoric merges technology with the traditional aspirations and images of American culture, by conceptualizing technological innovation as a process organically embedded in our social fabric.