Epanodos (e-pan’-o-dos): 1. Repeating the main terms of an argument in the course of presenting it. 2. Returning to the main theme after a digression. 3. Returning to and providing additional detail for items mentioned previously (often using parallelism).
My fellow Armenians. Ha ha. That’s a joke “my fellow Americans.” As “fellows,” we are connected in a way that is more vague, ambiguous and general than “brothers” or “my friends.”
We are fellows. We are connected, Google tells us we are “peers with a common interest.” That’s pretty good. Google adds meaning to our lives via wi-fi and LTE. Sometimes it posts vivid graphics and video clips.
“Fellow” is illustrated by a nighttime Nazi rally and by one of Trump’s daytime rallies. it is the “common interest” of the audience members that matters. The common interest of the Nazi audience is easy to ascertain—hatred of a common enemy and membership in the master race—two roads to war and the killing it entails.
I saw a Hitler impersonator read one of Trump’s speeches at a campaign rally attended by Trump acolytes and fans. It was translated into German and read in Hitler’s tone. It sounded just like Hitler. So much so, that Stephen Miller gave it the Nazi salute, Pam Bondi swooned, Hegseth did a little jig like Hitler in the old film clip, and Ivanka and her husband ran out the door looking over their shoulders, panic stricken.
So anyway, “fellowship” denotes a common interest, but it does not denote what the interest is. As “Fellow Americans” in the 21st century, I think it has less to do with a common interest and moral compass than the geographic border that contains us and the citizenship that certifies us as “Americans.” Nevertheless, there are so-called “American values” afloat everywhere that conflict with each other everywhere.
“Fellow Americans” has lost its power as a morally binding national trope. Now, it may be taken up by conflicted groups to illustrate their difference from each other as “fellow Americans” forming a basis for their alienation from each other, vying for the designation “True Americans.”
Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu.
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