Anamnesis


Anamnesis (an’-am-nee’-sis): Calling to memory past matters. More specifically, citing a past author [apparently] from memory.  Anamnesis helps to establish ethos [credibility], since it conveys the idea that the speaker is knowledgeable of the received wisdom from the past.

PT Barnum tells us “A sucker in born every minute.” I think Donald Trump believes this. But, I think he believes everybody is a sucker. He has good reason to believe it’s true. After all, there were enough suckers to get him elected, and now it seems that everything he has done as President is based on his “everybody’s a sucker principle.”

The latest example: his new nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson. He wouldn’t have nominated him if he didn’t believe that Congress is a pack of suckers–who are sucker enough to confirm somebody who’s key “qualifications” may be that he’s a Navy Admiral and Trump’s White House Physician. Where’s the administrative experience for managing an organization with thousands of employees and a 200 billion dollar budget?

I believe his nominee’s key qualification is his absolute allegiance to Trump. Remember when he claimed that 239-pound Trump was not obese?

Let the hearings begin!

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Gorgias has inserted the bracketed words [apparently] and [credibility].

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