May I have a word? Zeitgeist

Dallas Morning News | Steve Blow:

“And I stand by my judgment that "zeitgeist" – however you pronounce it – is one of those words used primarily to impress other people. It may be fine for an NPR commentary, but not for the mass audience of a newspaper. (Though I'm certainly not calling you a dumb mass.)”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Sure he is. Steve Blow is putting on his sweet, aw-shucks, good ole boy manner to help the medicine of his grammar lesson go down. Or perhaps it's only to share his pedantic fussiness with like-minded readers without alienating the "dumb masses" who make up the rest of his audience.

His subject, the word zeitgeist, is a foreign word imported into English because English doesn't have a suitable synonym. It's primarily used, not to impress others, but to express an idea for which English has no equivalent word. Whether "Heroes" is, or isn't, a zeitgeist TV series is a matter of debate. But the concept of a zeitgeist TV series, whether it's a Western from the 1950s or a reality show from today, is a rich and meaningful concept, captured in a single word — zeitgeist.

Would Mr Blow prefer to talk about the plot twists of the series or celebrity gossip surrounding its actors and actresses? Perhaps Mr Blow believes that the very act of talking about ideas is done to impress others. Remember the folk wisdom:

"Great people talk about ideas.
Average people talk about things.
Small people talk about other people."
-- Author unknown

Some say the dumbing down of popular culture is part of the zeitgeist of our age. If so, Mr Blow, by implying that zeitgeist is itself too big a word for him to understand, is an example of that zeitgeist himself. Come on, Mr Blow, give your readers more credit than that.