On Monday, I wrote a little bit about the format of the latest issue of Adbusters. In doing so, I neglected to mention anything about its articles, something I'd like to do now because I think they highlight a new trend in the activist movement.

Between the photographic essays and the advertsing-related newsbites in the latest issue of Adbusters are only a handful of articles. My favourite was "The Great Escape" by Richard Degrandpre who elegantly makes the case that our virtual perceptions are shaping our reality. 

(I sadly agree. Last night I dreamt I was reading email at work. Awful.) 

The smaller pieces, "Hacklash" (on activists being chased off the 'net) and "Recanters" (on persons who have relgious-like 'conversions' that make them recant their past deeds) were short and sweetish.

And then there was the Cyborg Manifesto which was so out of line with everything else that Adbusters purports, that I'm not sure how seriously to take the message.

While I was reading the issue, I couldn't help but notice the underpinnings of an underlying theme. It began with the very first letter to the editor in regards to the cover art of the last issue:

Could the activist community behind Adbusters be considering joining forces with the religious against their mutual foe of Big Business?

Well, I don't think the godless anarchists faction will be walking alongside the Righteous anytime soon, but politics have made stranger bedfellows. Just take the case of environmentalists and hunters banding together to save wildlife habitiat. 

Now I don't consider myself a religious person but I think such an alliance just makes sense as the two camps hold so much in common.

I mean, what else is the campaign to throw out Coca-Cola and ChannelOne from the classroom but a reworking of the story of Jesus throwing the moneylenders out of the Temple?