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What does "iconoclasm" mean in this context?


I meant two things:

1) Worship of icons and behaviors instead of the things which they represent; that is, cargo cult entrepreneurship. This is my own vague and probably incorrect usage.

2) If someone exclaims "Let's change the world," I would ask "Which part? Why?"

Iconoclasm has a secondary meaning "A person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions." Changing the world does; to do so vaguely, or at random, or without actually mentioning the target, is not always such a sane thing to do.


Iconoclasm actually means the opposite. Iconoclasts were a bunch of people in the middle ages who had something against religious images and so went around breaking them. Icons = images. Clasm = break.

So the traditional meaning of iconoclast in this context would be someone who seeks to break accepted imagery on a specific topic.


Thanks for pointing that out.




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