Subversive
(pronounced sub-vuhr-siv or sub-vuhr-ziv) adjective
Definition
from the verb subvert.
Subvert (pronounced sub-vuhrt) = 1. to totally destroy or overthrow (something established or widely accepted such as a government, institution or other entity, tenet, or system); ruin. 2. to corrupt or undermine the morals, rules or standards, loyalty, or reputation of.
Other Forms
Subversion (pronounced sub-vuhr-zhun or sub-vuhr-shun) noun
Main Example
- In a recent interview on PBS’s Nightly Business Report, Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren talked about the ill effects of the government guaranteeing the debt of select financial institutions such as GE Capital, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs. According to Warren, such guarantees have produced severe distortions in the marketplace and have been subversive to an efficient and fair financial system because they have enabled these giant firms to unfairly lower their borrowing costs to the tune of billions of dollars.
Workplace Examples
- I am totally against this new practice of people using email to even just say “hi” to somebody seated merely two cubicles down. This trend toward a lack of face-to-face communication is unwholesome. It is subversive to America’s traditional workplace culture that facilitates strong interpersonal contact and thus generates camaraderie.
- I’ll tell you why healthcare expenses haven’t come down as planned. The new reimbursement policy contains so many loopholes that several employees have been subverting its intention big-time.
Other Examples
- a manager telling a colleague: “It appears some of the supervisors in my department, especially those who stand to lose power under my proposed reorganization, are trying to subvert me. They’ve been quietly inciting employees to exaggerate the downsides of my plan during conversations with my superiors.”
- consumer groups fighting the practice of businesses sneaking “binding mandatory arbitration” (BMA) clauses into the fine print, saying that BMA clauses subvert customers’ rights to fair redress because arbitration forums are “one-sided kangaroo courts”
- during the brouhaha that followed revelations about the National Security Agency collecting phone call records of tens of millions of U.S. citizens to do data mining, some Americans describing the practice as necessary for identifying would-be terrorists, while others calling the NSA’s actions a subversion of our freedoms and of the Constitution
- al Qaeda’s subversive agenda; Leon Trotsky, a born revolutionary: he was distributing subversive literature to industrial workers when he was a teenager, which led to his arrest and prison time in Siberia
- the repressive military government of Myanmar (Burma) keeping Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest because it regards her non-violent pro-democracy activities as subversive
