Buying In - (Page 25) chapter two the straw man in the gray flannel suit THE FUNDAMENTAL TENSION OF MODERN LIFE . . . OUTLAWS AND OUTCASTS . . . JOINING IS OVER . . . OH, DOTAGE—UP YOURS! . . . IDENTITY LEISURE the fundamental tension of modern life Accepting that symbols, brands, and logos can acquire meaning—especially in the age of the Pretty Good Problem—is the first step of understanding the Desire Code. The second step is understanding what those symbolic meanings do for us. There are many answers: Consumers of the Ecko rhino, the Polo logo, the Hundreds brand, and Hello Kitty are clearly different sorts of people, with different stories. Let’s start with one story that’s not connected to any of those symbols: Ed Templeton’s. Templeton was born in 1973, in the suburbs of Orange County. He was raised there, and he lives there today. When he was in grade school, his father left home, leaving his mother with kids she could not really control. “There was a broken-
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