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Iconoclast

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(pronounced iy-kon-uh-klast)  noun

Definition

1. one who destroys icons or other religious images, or who opposes their worship. 2. a person who attacks, and seeks to invalidate and bring down, cherished or traditional ideas, beliefs, or institutions.

Other Forms

Iconoclastic  (pronounced iy-kon-uh-klas-tik)  adjective
Iconoclasm  (pronounced iy-kon-uh-klaz-um)  noun

Main Example

• Even though he is the founder of the huge Vanguard family of funds, John Bogle is unpopular with the mutual fund industry because of his lifelong iconoclasm. Bogle’s consistent refrain has been that the mutual fund industry is more focused on “salesmanship” than “stewardship” and that investors would be better off investing in index funds instead of actively managed funds which, in his opinion, are much too inefficient and expensive.

Workplace Examples

• Greg, who is by far the youngest member of our top management team, is also the most audacious. Since joining the company, he has done lots of unconventional things that have really shaken up the establishment. Quite the iconoclast!
• What a change there’s been in Mark. Twelve years ago, when he was freshly recruited from one of the top consulting firms, he was brimming with new and unconventional ideas. Many of us really admired him for his outside the box, iconoclastic views and approach. Today, Mark’s just like everyone else, very traditional and conformist in his thinking.

Other Examples

• responding to a newsletter article about her, a colleague saying: “I’m a bit ambivalent about that story. Those who don’t know me well might start viewing me with suspicion because the piece portrays me as a bit of a dissenter, a sort of iconoclast, rather than a team player, which is what I really am.”
• two committee members almost always clashing because one is orthodox and the other is iconoclastic; a stock market guru whose forecasts and thinking are usually iconoclastic and vastly different from the rest of the pack
• an iconoclastic blogger; an iconoclastic chef; an architect’s iconoclastic designs; some top male execs in the computer industry who wear ponytails or earrings to symbolize that they think “outside the box,” that they are iconoclasts and defy conventional thinking
• a high school student’s irreverent opinion of a couple of America’s founding fathers making him an iconoclast in the eyes of his classmates; two prominent politicians known for their maverick style and iconoclasm: Republican John McCain and Democrat Russ Feingold
• Now it’s more or less settled wisdom that, at the present trend, our oceans will be depleted of most fishes within about 25 years. But it was the late Ransom Myers--a world-renowned marine biologist--who first warned that overfishing is leading to the extinction of marine species. Armed with incontrovertible studies, Myers, a math and science genius, iconoclastically took on the fishing industry and national governments in the early 1990s and successfully challenged the then zeitgeist that “overfishing of the oceans” is an oxymoron.

© 2014 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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