ABSTRACT
The voices defending and attacking the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) are full of passion. The language may sound like a debate over national security. The old American traditions of "manifest destiny and mission/' in which Yankee forays into the world hewed to an episodic and crusading character, were buried in 1950 by Korea and the cold war. SDI renews an American precept lost after 1945. For SDI supporters, technology is assurance of achievement. Both progressives and purifiers understand that SDI means change. By offering a unified national goal, SDI has linked progressives and purifiers. SDI represents a potential point of departure from the pragmatists' sense of an American mission. SDI is scourged and worshipped, ultimately, for its sense of promise. It is almost instinctively understood by Americans. SDI symbolizes an unnatural course for Man. A few SDI opponents in the popular press sound like Luddites.
