Change the conversation, support rabble.ca today.

Life under a national security state is not a life. Living under such a state is simply living like a slave, or at best it is like living in a big prison, albeit one that has invisible bars. While invisible, these bars are, nevertheless, extremely constraining.

One of the pillars the national security state heavily depends on is wholesale surveillance. Total surveillance society, as predicted by George Orwell more than a half-century ago, has finally arrived. Technological advances, achieved over the past three decades, made total surveillance both possible and "affordable."

Deciding whether or not to oppose Syria’s rulers has been the recent dominant preoccupation of many anti-imperialist and left-leaning movements. This hesitant attitude towards the Syrian struggle for freedom is nurtured by many anti-regime actions that were recently taken by many Western and Middle-Eastern countries, whose main interest lies in isolating Syria from Iran. However, I believe a better question to ask with respect to Syria is whether the leftist movement should support, or not support, the struggle of the Syrian people.

Jim Bronskill from the Canadian Press published a follow-up story on the torture directive that was issued by the Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews. The new story speaks of a more recent directive issued in July 2011.

The signs are clear: Bashar al-Assad is in a state of desperation, and his latest speech in front of Syrian parliament proves it: having played most of the cards at his disposal in attempting to crush the Syrian uprising (including the murder of peaceful protesters), he is now playing his final card, the "patriotism" card, by now insisting that the turmoil taking place in Syria is the result of a "foreign conspiracy." He has promised that he will resort to an "iron-first" approach to deal with the "terrorists" (i.e. peaceful protesters). He reiterated his promise during a surprise appearance in front of a crowd of supporters the following day.