new favorite word: Zeigeist
Zeit·geist (tsīt'gīst', zīt'-) noun
The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation: “It's easy to see how a student . . . in the 1940's could imbibe such notions. The Zeitgeist encouraged Philosopher-Kings” (James Atlas).
[German : Zeit, time (from Middle High German zīt, from Old High German) + Geist, spirit]
Zeitgeist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the German word.
Look up Zeitgeist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Zeitgeist (help·info) is originally a German expression that means "the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era.
The concept of Zeitgeist goes back to Johann Gottfried Herderand other German Romantics, but is best known in relation to Hegel's philosophy of history. In 1769 Herder wrote a critique of the work Genius seculi by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz (German Wikipedia article) and introduced the word Zeitgeist into German as a translation of genius seculi (Latin: genius - "guardian spirit" and saeculi - "of the century"). The German Romantics, habitually tempted to reduce the past to essences, treated the Zeitgeist as a historical character in its own right, rather than a mere conceptual instrument.
Zeitgeist has achieved a unique status among German loanwords in other tongues, having found an entrance into English, Spanish, Dutch and even Japanese.
It is a term that refers to the ethos of a cohort of people, that spans one or more subsequent generations, who despite their diverse age and socio-economic background experience a certain worldview, which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. Zeitgeist is the experience of a dominant cultural climate that defines, particularly in Hegelian thinking, an era in the dialectical progression of a people or the world at large. According to Hegel, the Zeitgeist always incarnated itself in a specific Volksgeist ("Volk" meaning "people"), which itselfs was personalized by an individual hero, symbolized by Napoleon. Once the hero's mission was accomplished, history would abandon it as a dry shell, and the Zeitgeist be transferred to another Volksgeist, where another hero would emerge to complete the unfolding of the spiritual Being in history itself.
***
On the evening before I told my boss: "I quit!" I learned a new word. Zeigeist.
(at PS Cafe)
N: "Just quit!! You can't help it... you just have to pursue your dreams and do what you're passionate about.... it's the Zeigeist of those who are born in the 1970s...
Jessie T: errr what's Zeigeist....?
****
EXCERPT from Debbie 10K's blog (she's linked up on my blog: pls search along left panel)... so as remembered by Debs. the next 5 minutes of conversation was as follows.....
Monday, April 17, 2006
P.S. One night in Singapore
We had supper at the PS cafe. (I love Peter Teo!) Najib told Jessica that we were the generation of instant gratification. He said in his generation, when they wanted to find out about something, they'd think about it for 2 weeks, go to the National Library, look it up in the encyclopedia, then understand what that something really meant.
In contrast, if we ever wondered, what an amniotic embolism was, we'd search it on the internet and find out immediately what it meant. No time to really understand what it means. Until it happens to someone you know.
It is very true - as a generation, we reflect a lot less on things we don't know and we demand everything (knowledge, pleasure, satisfaction) instantaneously.
Jessica quit her job the next day. :)
posted by Debbie Kay at 11:57 PM
*****
on that fateful night at PS Cafe, i also shared with all my miracle of the day.
earlier that day, a Thursday, I had just texted Debs.
"Ehhh I'm like havin' panic attack lei... i wanna do this (quit) but scared shit. boo hoo."
as the screen on my purple nokia blinked "message sent" i placed my cell back on my desk and almost immediately felt a light tap on my right shoulder.
i turned around to see the newsroom editorial assistant behind me with her hands outstretched.
she held a copy of a magazine in which i had contributed an article to almost a year ago.
"i've got a present for you, here." she says.
i thanked my visitor. she had given me something she was keeping for me for a long time...
as she stepped away, i quickly flipped through the content page in search of my story...
there on the contributor's page was a little box that mirrored my face. i looked at it fleetingly before i read a personal quote of mine that captioned my picture.
it was something i came up with exactly a year ago and it was exactly what i needed to hear at that moment.
it said i said:""Don't shy away from change, don't be afraid of who you're meant to be."
sweet miracle. sweet sweet miracle.
The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation: “It's easy to see how a student . . . in the 1940's could imbibe such notions. The Zeitgeist encouraged Philosopher-Kings” (James Atlas).
[German : Zeit, time (from Middle High German zīt, from Old High German) + Geist, spirit]
Zeitgeist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the German word.
Look up Zeitgeist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Zeitgeist (help·info) is originally a German expression that means "the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era.
The concept of Zeitgeist goes back to Johann Gottfried Herderand other German Romantics, but is best known in relation to Hegel's philosophy of history. In 1769 Herder wrote a critique of the work Genius seculi by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz (German Wikipedia article) and introduced the word Zeitgeist into German as a translation of genius seculi (Latin: genius - "guardian spirit" and saeculi - "of the century"). The German Romantics, habitually tempted to reduce the past to essences, treated the Zeitgeist as a historical character in its own right, rather than a mere conceptual instrument.
Zeitgeist has achieved a unique status among German loanwords in other tongues, having found an entrance into English, Spanish, Dutch and even Japanese.
It is a term that refers to the ethos of a cohort of people, that spans one or more subsequent generations, who despite their diverse age and socio-economic background experience a certain worldview, which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. Zeitgeist is the experience of a dominant cultural climate that defines, particularly in Hegelian thinking, an era in the dialectical progression of a people or the world at large. According to Hegel, the Zeitgeist always incarnated itself in a specific Volksgeist ("Volk" meaning "people"), which itselfs was personalized by an individual hero, symbolized by Napoleon. Once the hero's mission was accomplished, history would abandon it as a dry shell, and the Zeitgeist be transferred to another Volksgeist, where another hero would emerge to complete the unfolding of the spiritual Being in history itself.
***
On the evening before I told my boss: "I quit!" I learned a new word. Zeigeist.
(at PS Cafe)
N: "Just quit!! You can't help it... you just have to pursue your dreams and do what you're passionate about.... it's the Zeigeist of those who are born in the 1970s...
Jessie T: errr what's Zeigeist....?
****
EXCERPT from Debbie 10K's blog (she's linked up on my blog: pls search along left panel)... so as remembered by Debs. the next 5 minutes of conversation was as follows.....
Monday, April 17, 2006
P.S. One night in Singapore
We had supper at the PS cafe. (I love Peter Teo!) Najib told Jessica that we were the generation of instant gratification. He said in his generation, when they wanted to find out about something, they'd think about it for 2 weeks, go to the National Library, look it up in the encyclopedia, then understand what that something really meant.
In contrast, if we ever wondered, what an amniotic embolism was, we'd search it on the internet and find out immediately what it meant. No time to really understand what it means. Until it happens to someone you know.
It is very true - as a generation, we reflect a lot less on things we don't know and we demand everything (knowledge, pleasure, satisfaction) instantaneously.
Jessica quit her job the next day. :)
posted by Debbie Kay at 11:57 PM
*****
on that fateful night at PS Cafe, i also shared with all my miracle of the day.
earlier that day, a Thursday, I had just texted Debs.
"Ehhh I'm like havin' panic attack lei... i wanna do this (quit) but scared shit. boo hoo."
as the screen on my purple nokia blinked "message sent" i placed my cell back on my desk and almost immediately felt a light tap on my right shoulder.
i turned around to see the newsroom editorial assistant behind me with her hands outstretched.
she held a copy of a magazine in which i had contributed an article to almost a year ago.
"i've got a present for you, here." she says.
i thanked my visitor. she had given me something she was keeping for me for a long time...
as she stepped away, i quickly flipped through the content page in search of my story...
there on the contributor's page was a little box that mirrored my face. i looked at it fleetingly before i read a personal quote of mine that captioned my picture.
it was something i came up with exactly a year ago and it was exactly what i needed to hear at that moment.
it said i said:""Don't shy away from change, don't be afraid of who you're meant to be."
sweet miracle. sweet sweet miracle.
posted by mypurpleink at 10:06 AM
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