Zeitgeist has the meaning not only of "the spirit of the times" (literal translation), but of the sense of a binding or constraining dominant ideals and beliefs of a time, which can be viewed as proscribing a cage within which a set of contemporaneously accessible ideas are constrained.

The idea was promoted by Albert Szent-Gyorgi in a 1970 book, The Crazy Ape.

There's a good overview of the concept in this VSauce2 video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cgOFQcNZiFk&t=9m43s

I'm finding the top-level complaint registered, its note, and significance on this discussion overstated and distracting.