Salvific Rhetoric and Democratic Restraints: Techno-Messianism in American Semiconductor and AI Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70670/sra.v4i2.1997Keywords:
Techno-nationalism, Secondary Qualitative Research, Critical Discourse Analysis, U.S. Technology Policy, Secular Messianism, Moral Legitimation, Chips Act, Artificial IntelligenceAbstract
Contemporary techno-nationalist policies increasingly deploy moral and salvific rhetoric that are beyond the traditional economic or security rationales. This research investigates how U.S. state and elite discourses construct technology as a driving force for national salvation. It employs wide-ranging analysis of publicly available policy documents, speeches, and reports from 2017-2025. Using systematic secondary data analysis, Rapid Thematic Analysis, and Fairclough's three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis model, this study analyzes 51 coded segments from 18 meticulously chosen documents of Trump and Biden's tenure. These four dominant salvific narratives appear: (1) Geopolitical Rivalry as Existential Crisis, (2) Technological Mastery as National Renewal, (3) Security and Workforce Protection as Ethical Imperative, and (4) Policy Moments as Prophetic Turning Points. Critical discourse analysis demonstrations how metaphorical language and moral assertions legitimize policies like the CHIPS and Science Act and AI executive orders as a necessity for national salvation. Comparative analysis shows Trump administration's crisis-driven unilateralism versus Biden administration's renewal-focused multilateralism. It has used both techno-messianic framings that marginalize alternative approaches to global technology governance. This research contributes to social sciences and technology by theorizing "techno-messianism" as a framework for understanding how moral imaginaries legitimizes current technology policies, along with its implications for democratic accountability and international cooperation.
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