someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions
<noun.person>
Iconoclast \I*con"o*clast\, n. [Gr. e'ikw`n image + ? to break: cf. F. iconoclaste.] 1. A breaker or destroyer of images or idols; a determined enemy of idol worship.
2. One who exposes or destroys impositions or shams; one who attacks cherished beliefs; a radical.
He is no iconoclast, but he is determined to speed up the process of change.
An iconoclast by temperament, she helped bring respectability to science fiction with her five haute SF works in the Shikasta series, written between 1979 and 1983. She hopes that her latest work will have a similarly positive effect.