Zeitgeist

Hello and welcome to Word of the Week! I’m your host, Liz. This podcast is dedicated to words and phrases that are untranslatable into English. Let’s discover the nuance of the world’s languages, shall we? 

This week’s word is Zeitgeist. A German word stemming from the 19th century meaning ‘the spirit of the time’. The prevailing mood of a certain period. The Zeitgeist of today is probably one of disinformation and a lack of trust in the media. And this is true currently due to not only the phrases ‘fake news’ and ‘deep fake’, but also the rise of social media apps and the ability to easily edit video and audio. 

But other time periods have a different Zeitgeist. If you hear that somebody is “stuck in the 60’s”, you conjure up a picture of a hippie with long hair, who wears tie-dye and grows their own organic vegetables. When you learn about the Industrial Revolution, you start to comprehend the rise of capitalism in a new light. And that’s because the Zeitgeist of the 19th century was progress and power at all costs - from the British Empire in India to the desired outward expansion of Japan to the landgrab of Africa by European powers. 

Individuals might not vibe with their current Zeitgeist. Some of us might feel like we’re better suited to a different time period, either on a religious, cultural, or political level. Nobody ever plans a Zeitgeist, although it’s paid close attention to and quickly adopted by insightful advertisers and politicians. 

Fred Polak, a sociologist, wrote a book called ‘The Image of the Future’. He proposed that people’s models of the future can precede large-scale societal changes. As an example, before the Renaissance could have happened, an individual’s attention had to turn away from sacred or spiritual matters, in order to refocus on pragmatic and earthly affairs. When people started to actually see and experience the plight of the impoverished in their communities, they started to think that God isn’t almighty and the Church doesn’t need alms. And if God isn’t almighty, then what does that make me as an individual? Maybe I am capable of innovation, insight, and independent thought. 

Here’s to this week… May you all endeavor to adopt this Word of the Week and see the world a little bit differently. I’ll be back next week with a new word. Thank you for listening!