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	Message: : I do! Here's the one with frog blast in it, very poorly translated into : English. Stupid jargon. It's got nothing to do with Marathon whatsoever, : but just so you don't have to lie sleepless at night wondering what that : Swedish was all about. : I think it's called "unfaithful symbols" or something. And don't : blame me for his calling us 20-year-old hackers =) : "'Frog blast the ventcore!' [sic] Don't worry about not understanding. : You weren't supposed to. It is a code understood only by certain computer : hackers, usually guys under the age of 20, a nonsense quote taken out of : context from a computer game. For a while, it was a sort of greeting : between initiates - I'm not one of them! : There are tons of signs like this, which we give each other to signal what : groups we belong to. The other day I heard a rumbling roar behind me on : the street. The powerful sound came from twenty thundering motorcycles : with hairy Hells Angels members wearing sunglasses and leather. The : symbols were there, but they did not work this time. These guys were : trying to look so dangerous and mean with their roaring and their vests, : but I had to smile at the collapse of the symbols and in a way I pitied : them. Because nowadays their symbols have been appropriated by other : groups. : Well-adjusted people, middle-aged or even older, who buy big fancy bikes and : drive around for fun in the weekends. I'm one of them, but I'm gradually : starting to look around for new options as more and more male and female : leather-clad seniors flock around their new shiny Harley Davidsons. Where : do Hells Angels go when their symbols are kidnapped by the enemy and : thereby gain new meanings? : Alexander Bard suggested a few years ago that all the fairy queers in : Stockholm should go out wearing shorts, leather lashes and brown shirts : adorned with swastikas. This would make it forever impossible for the : neo-Nazis to make use of these symbols. The symbol theft, the satire and : the humor would work just as well if not even better, than serious debates : and education. I think he's right. : We're living in a time of many options but also great insecurity. Who am I? : Whom do I want to be? The answers are no longer provided by parents, : school or the church. We have to work out our own answers individually. : We're well aware of this. But the amount of symbols that can be bought : with money, brands, seduce us with a simple solution. Too simple. : Companies fill their brands with associations to fundamental values, that the : one thirsting for identity may find a tempting way out of his anxiety. : With the help of brands we become someone, but never ourselves. : The philosopher Emmanuel Mounier says that man is drawn downwards, toward : primitive instincts. But we also reach outwards, toward our fellow humans. : We strive upwards towards the spiritual realm and we seek inwards into our : own depths and mysteries. Our own complexity, greatness and weaknesses : should fill us with what Mounier calls a restrictive "shyness" : for the belief that we in a more profound sense can feel and understand : other people. : Brands feel no shyness and will therefore always be an unsatisfying and : vulnerable expression of our authentic identities. Just imagine if the : wrong group started wearing our favorite symbols!"
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