Right now, we have a first time DEF CON speaker, Frans Pair. He's going to speak to you about exploiting music streaming with JavaScript. It's his first time at DEF CON. Please give him a big round of applause. 18. I hope you guys are all awake. So, I'm Frans Pair, programmer at Tactical Network Solutions, and I'm going to go over exploiting music streaming with JavaScript. So, a couple of acknowledges before I start. I'd like to thank Zachary Cullop and Craig Hefner for all the help and support, and my employer, Tactical Network Solutions, for letting me learn about security without going to jail, which is great. Special thanks to Ronald Jenkins, who is an independent artist, who has given me permission to use his music in his presentation so I don't get sued by the RIAA. Speaking of which, I'd like to thank the EFF for helping me address issues with the DMCA and the CFAA. However, the decision was made to now release the original tool, which I had planned to. That was a Google Chrome extension, which would showcase all the different exploits and vulnerabilities, which I'm going to cover today. But I will be releasing an alternative tool, which I'll get into more detail later. I also want to state that the opinions and views expressed to your mind and not my employers. So, what am I going to be talking about? Well, I'm going to give you some background information of what my project is and what I've done, so you can have a context of, like, my approach and how I did it. Then I'll go over the music streaming basics, so you guys have an understanding of how it works and limitations today and what you're going to be seeing. And then I'm going to go over my security investigation process, so kind of taking you from the beginning to the end of research to exploitation. And hopefully by the end of this, you'll have a pretty good grasp on how you can do this by yourself. And then I'll go over exploit demo, assuming everything works out all right. And if I have any time afterwards, I'll talk about my new alternative extension, which I'm going to be releasing. And I'll take questions at the end if we have any time. So the end goal. Well, originally I had planned to release a Google Chrome extension, which would have all the different exports, which I'm going to show you. And the way this would work is that it would mimic the music player whenever possible, so whenever I was smart enough to figure out how to reverse engineer the code and generate the requests the way they did. Otherwise, I would just log whenever I saw some MP3 flying by, and I look at the syntax and I match that syntax, and every time something that matches that syntax flies by, I can go get with that song. And so the end result is that you have something that sits in the background, and every time you listen to a song, you can download it. But I'm not going to be releasing that. So what am I going to be releasing? Well, it's an alternative, which is it's not exactly the same. It's a forensics tool, not an exploitation tool. And what it does is it duplicates requests that it sees flying by, and it caches it in your RAM. And this is helpful for like a text dump analysis afterwards. So if you are like into doing like malware analysis without wanting to put it on your hard drive, you can do it entirely from your browser now. And this is also helpful if you want to see exactly what's being loaded into your browser. So here's the wall of shame, a bunch of different services which I found vulnerabilities in. Some of these have made fixes, some of them haven't. Most of them haven't. So we have Pandora, Amini, SoundCloud, Groove Shark, Django, Playlist.com, and Hrex.  All right, so what is streaming? Well, Wikipedia defines it as a way to constantly receive and present data that's being delivered by provider. So from a developer's point of view, this means that you're going to be receiving data in a really long stream. And as soon as you get the first piece, you can start processing it and displaying it to the viewer. From a attacker's point of view, this means that you're going to constantly be receiving data. And at the very end, you'll have everything you need to reconstruct the file, whether it's a song or whatever. And it's only a matter of capturing the data pieces. And once you do that, there are two technical major roblox that prevent you from playing it back. You have reassembly of the pieces, typically if you, in the way the internet works, is when you send data, it's not always received in the same order which it was sent. And so this could be more difficult depending on what type of protocol they use. And if you see any encryption, that's probably going to be stopping you because usually if you want to break encryption, it's not to get music to get someone's password. So that's going to be your major roblox. So the protocols which I've seen, typically when you have some sort of desktop application like Spotify or Pandora 1, they will use a custom TCP protocol. And this makes it incredibly difficult to reassemble because A, it's either not documented or B, it's proprietary and you don't know how it works. So this is probably going to stop you getting your tracks. However, I've noticed that some services like Last FM use HTTP or HTTPS because they don't want to write their own custom protocol. But this is typically what you see in some browser based applications. So the regular Pandora app, SoundCloud, these guys are going to be using HTTP and HTTPS. And this is because they don't want to do extra coding. The browser does it all for you, why would you want to do it yourself? And if you're an attacker or hacker or whatever, this means that you can use the browser too. Now you don't have to worry about reassembly and de-encryption. So this is why I targeted these because they're extremely easy to go after. And there are two different types of streaming which I kind of named myself. There is static streaming where you will have one URL per song. So you'll have to usually reference it by a file name and you have to know the directory and everything. And this is different from a dynamic one where you have one page and depending on what parameters you send it, you get back a different file. So if you can see here, we have a stream.php page and depending on what key you send it, you get back a different file. So it's one to one versus one to many. And this is important to keep track of when you're doing analysis. So there are two major types of music players. The most common one is Flash. This is a majority of the web players you'll see. However, they may still use JavaScript. I've seen a lot of people be really lazy and they will actually use JavaScript to pull back the data and then just pass it on to the Flash. So all the Flash does is play back. And this is typically because you have Flash libraries that are made to play back music but not necessarily customized to work with your interface. So this is how they get around it. However, some services you're going to have to decompile them. And I don't know any Flash myself so I skipped anything that did this. But it's important to know that if you are successful at decompiling the Flash and you want to exploit it using your Chrome extension with JavaScript, it runs in a separate environment due to security issues. So if there's some kind of secret key baked into the Flash, you're not going to get it from JavaScript. And then the other one you'll see is HTML5, which is kind of experimental right now because not all the browsers have full support for it yet. And you typically see this in mobile-based applications because Flash is losing support there. And this is entirely in JavaScript. So no decompiling or anything but it's minified most of the time, which means that it's obfuscated and it's really hard to read. So where's the vulnerability? Well, I already went over how the browser does all like the major work for you. So what do you have to do? Well, there are two ways of going about this. I mentioned this earlier. You can copy the requests by kind of just telling based on the syntax of the URL. And this is typically pretty easy.  However, this can be suspicious if they're doing some kind of server side logging and they see two identical requests coming in within milliseconds of each other, they're probably like, huh, why, this isn't normal activity. Why is this happening? But I haven't really seen this being an issue in terms of any red flags being thrown up. But this can be limiting. I found services where they have one-time use tokens. So you use a token to stream your music and after it's been used, it's no longer valid. So by the time your second request gets there, it's not valid and you don't get anything back. And the way you get around this is to generating the requests yourself. So this is going to be a little bit more difficult. Sometimes you can tell based on the syntax of the URL what variables are needed and how you get them. Other times you have to reverse engineer the code and figure out what they're doing. But if you are successful, you get past the limitation there and it's undetectable when there's sessions. So if they have sessions, then it looks from the server side that two requests are coming in from two different people in the same IP address and they just happen to be listening to the same song. All right. So how do you go about doing this? Well, it's important to keep in mind that you've got to do breath before depth. You don't want to like dig yourself in the first thing you see and waste two hours and figure out that's the wrong thing. You want to keep track of all your possible options and then take the path of least resistance. And you want to remember breath before depth. Okay, yeah, I did that. Okay. Once you keep that in mind, you want to locate the music file in the network traffic. So you can do this in Chrome by opening up the developer console and then going to the network tab and you can see all the traffic flying by. And there's going to be a lot of traffic so you want to filter based on exit charge traffic and possibly sorting by type. And the reason why you want to do this is because typically when music is loaded in a streaming service, especially internet radio service, the music isn't loaded when the page is sent to you originally. Like with Pandora, the songs are actually loaded after the page has been loaded. This is because they want to have time to look at your recommendations and figure out what song to give you next. Also, they don't know how many songs they're going to be listening to before you go away. So they have to load this after the fact. And this is done through Ajax, which is going to be showing up as XHR traffic. And you can also sort by type like looking for audio files because that's probably what you're going to be finding. Once you find the actual request, you want to inspect any parameters in that request. So headers, any kind of parameters that they send in the URL, stuff like that. Then you want to find out where those values come from. And there are many different locations where these values are going to come from. The first place, you want to do the easiest to the hardest. The first place that's easiest is the page URL. Sometimes the song ID is in the URL of the page you're on and you can just use that to get the song. After that, you might want to look at the page source, do control F, look for the name of the parameter, you might be able to find it. Then you might want to look at local storage, possibly cookies as well, because I've seen with services like Groove Shark, if you have a playlist or something, they will send the whole thing to you at once, so you don't have to keep making requests to find out what the next song is. And then at the very end, you want to look at JavaScript because that's going to be hard to read and you're going to have to figure out what someone else's code is doing. And when you have everything, you can attempt to replicate the request. So kind of based on the text of the request you've seen as your example, take the parameters you have and generate the same thing. So first target is a mini. This is a really great first target. They're flash-based service but they use JavaScript to load and they have almost no security. I was able to exploit these guys without looking at any code. So this is the page with the network traffic. I've circled the network tab and at the very bottom you can see that we have an audio slash mp3 file which is actually what we're looking for. So if you wanted to take the easy way out, you could actually right click this and open it in your tab and then download it that way. So this is the cheap way out. Okay. However, I was trying to show you guys how to automate this with JavaScript. So we're going to do more inspection. So looking at the actual request, we see there's actually only one parameter and I took out all the other headers because those are the standard headers that your browser sends. But we had this FID and I'm going to go out on a hunch and say FID stands for file ID because they typically name things like this. So now we look for the FID. So the first place to look is going to be in the URL. And sure enough, it's in the URL. You're like, great. We have everything we needed. Now how do I duplicate what they did? So you go and look back at what they did. So you go and look back at what they did. So you go and look back at what they did. And you go and look back at the original request and you can see that they actually have this weird subdomain thing going on. And I found out with deduction that the first four characters of the FID are the first four characters of that subdomain in reverse order. So it wasn't very difficult to figure that one out. And you can easily replicate this using JavaScript, but I'm not allowed to show you guys any exploit code. So our next target is Groovshark.  I'm going to show these guys because they have HTML5 and I was kind of wondering how that would play out in terms of difficulty. And they use several factors of authentication and the JavaScript is minified, so it's hard to read, which makes it really for the faint of heart. It's not for the faint of heart. So you want to make sure that you keep track of what you're doing the whole time. Know what parameters you have, what you're looking for, what your next target is, what you don't get lost because it can get confusing. So I went ahead and I'm going to tell you guys that you didn't want to have a JavaScript beautifier because it makes the glob on the left look like the glob on the right. And while you still have characters like underscore underscore p, at least you can have proper spacing and you can read functions. So that's great. And here this is I skipped the network request itself and I've highlighted that they have, that's the URL they have there and all they have is stream key as what you send to them. So off the bat you think, hey, this is pretty easy, I need one parameter which is stream key. So that's what I'm going to look for. So you also, I looked at all the traffic to see what was coming and I found this more PHP file and there is a get stream key from song ID and the method I highlighted because that changes all the time but we know what it is because it says up there. So we only need four parameters. I say only because it actually is easier than it seems. And while I was looking at more PHP, I found this get communication token method which uses a secret key. And I found this get communication token method which uses a secret key and I like secrets. So I'm going to keep this in mind. So what do we need? Well from the very beginning we know that as soon as we get the stream key we can get the song and we know to get the stream key we need to call more PHP with this get stream key from song IDX method and we need to pass it to these four parameters and more PHP has a secret key. So I'm interested. So this is the JavaScript and this is what I get and in the very first line you see this window.gs.tpl and I'm guessing gs stands for groove shark. So I'm like cool they're storing stuff in the JavaScript environment. Let's see what they have. I find this window.gs.config which has the session ID. So we're like all right that's one down. What else is there? There's actually this model which turns out to be the entire playlist which you have saved in memory and every single song in this playlist has an ID which is the song ID. So right off the bat we were able to find two of the parameters we needed just by looking at the very first line of the JavaScript file. So not bad but we still need the rest of the parameters. So I do so this is kind of keeping track of everything. So I search for the UUID because it was easier and sure enough I find a function that takes no parameters which is good news because now I don't have to find any more parameters. I can just copy this function and every time I need a new UUID I just call this function. So this is an easy copy and paste. So now we're left with token and this is where it gets a little bit more challenging. So I do a find this f dot header dot token which turns out to be the token being put into the header of the request that we saw. So looking at it there's a bunch of stuff that we need. So going top down like you should read code there's this r dot last randomizer which is equal to o and remember what I said about functions that take no parameters we can just copy and paste them and sure enough that's the function right there. So that's taken care of. We need this r dot rev token. So I do a control f for rev token and I find rev token which is equal to n. N is equal to GUI flubber which is the secret key which they hope no one would find. Unfortunately I shouldn't have put it right on top of okay. So now we really need the current token because if you recall method was just a method we were calling the URL with and we had that documented. So now we just need the current token. So I just searched for any instances of token because I couldn't find any instances of current token. And yeah this is where the secret key comes in. Because get communication token returns the token that we need for this request. And so now we're on a hunt for the secret key. Which control f shows that it is the hex md5 of the session ID which we found on the very first step. So we already have everything that we need. And to just recap we needed the stream key and we got that by finding these four variables which were just in the JavaScript and the secret key was needed to get the token. So we have everything and with this information you can generate the request. But I can't show you an exploit code so we're just going to go straight to a demo. All right. So this is Django.com they are a very small music streaming service and it's like an internet radio station. So the first thing I'm going to do is open up the developer tools and go to the network tab.  So it's important to keep that in mind. So it plays which is good. And I'm going to filter based on XHR traffic down here. And at the very bottom we have this audio slash MPEG file which turns out to be what we're looking for. So I'm going to click on it and look for anything that we might need. And it turns out that this is a statically a static streaming website. So we just need this file name. And it's important to keep in mind here we have this weird directory thing going on which is also the first six characters of the song ID. So if we need that we have it right there. And because I don't really know where to look for this file ID because it doesn't have a specific parameter name in front of it so I can't do a control F. I'm just going to look at the other traffic that we filter on because there's only four other requests so it's not going to take us very long.  And it has a song ID here but it doesn't actually correspond to the 08, 06 one that we have so that's a dead end right there. But if you look here this page actually returns the URL without the file name. The whole URL. So this is our target. And if you look at the headers they take quite a few parameters. So we have first time which is equal to 1. That's true. So that's going to be a binary flag. You can probably lie on that if you want to. An SID which I'm not really sure what it is. A version number which is probably going to be the same every time. SUW which I'm not sure what it is either. And CB which I'm also not sure about. But at least now we know what names we're looking for. And at this point I actually noticed that I'm glad that Chrome has this but they have this initiator column which tells you exactly what script and what line made this request. So if we click on this it will actually take us to this line. Which if you notice this is minified JavaScript. So you're not going to be reading this very easily. And I've went and gone ahead and beautified it so now we can actually inspect the code. So if you recall the URL back here was it was the streams URL. So we're going to look for any instance of streams. And sure enough it takes us straight to the line that creates the request. And we have this underscore JM station ID and some parameters which are set right above it. And so we can see first time set it to one. We have this SID which is apparently session ID. We have the version number here W apparently stands for whether the sign-up window is visible or not. And so we have everything and then CB here is apparently the date and time. So we have everything we need and I already went ahead and wrote a one line JavaScript which will generate this for us. So this bits out the URL that was generating the new song locations. So I'm going to copy that. And it turns out they actually patched the service three days before I came to DEF CON. And this is freaking me out. Apparently they're doing some weird thing with checking your session but I found out to get around it is you can just refresh the radio station and then it will work. So here we have the next song that would be playing. And if we actually just keep refreshing this it will give us a different song every time. So we can actually get every single song in their music library. But I did want to show you guys an exploit through my Chrome extension. So although I'm not going to be releasing it I can show you guys what it looks like. So as you saw there was a pop-up and I clicked on it and it takes us to my Chrome extension and you can select it and then hit download. And it's right there. So not very difficult. So that was a Chrome extension but I did say that I was going to be releasing this alternative tool. So what is this tool? Well I'm tentatively calling it browser shark until I get sued. But I already bought the domain name so I'm good. Basically what it's going to do is if you recall earlier I mentioned that I had a method where I would copy any URL that matched the syntax of the song and then go retrieve it myself. Well I decided that wouldn't it be cool if I could record all my traffic going through and then cache that to the browser. And what happens is now I can I can just go to Google and all my traffic will show up right here. And what you can do with this is you can actually analyze the hex of the request to make sure that you're not getting any malware and it's nice enough to tell you what type of file it is. So if they're lying to you tell. And like I said before this would be really cool with forensics and stuff like that. And I'm planning on doing more of coding so you can do a little bit more with the hex editor. So this is a tool that I'm going to be releasing and I'll have a location to download it at the end of my PowerPoint. So things I learned. Downloading music is inconvenient. I found that after I had music I didn't know what to do with it so actually now I honestly just use Spotify because I don't like having to deal with files. But services were fairly easy to exploit. I think with all the different services which I listed at the very beginning I found exploits in them in three days total for all of them and the hardest ones was Grooveshark which took me a whole day. Pandora actually was surprisingly easy. And it was impossible to it's actually impossible to completely streaming. Inherently at some point you're going to have your music on my computer and I own my computer and even if you use encryption you have to decrypt it so you can play it back and at that point you could copy the files so inherently you can't protect streaming. And some things you should know people have bad security this is a shocker and some people will patch their code others will not this is the beast of security this is just the way it works and the same web traffic logging will work with video streaming services too some of them not all of them people always ask me if Netflix will work no, Netflix will not work but if you go to some sketchy Chinese music streaming websites I'm pretty sure this would work as well but that's a topic for another day so I did a case study originally the very first target I found which if you guys aren't familiar with is a British music streaming service and I found the vulnerability and I emailed them I got no response I made this Chrome extension I got no response but apparently they were able to fix it without my help so good on them and these are some things I noticed after they fixed it they secured it heavily they capped the bandwidth to match the playback speed so it's actually impossible if you wanted to download the whole music library it wouldn't be possible because as long as it would take to play back all that music which is years so that's a good way to prevent people from stealing all your music they also have one-time use tokens like I said earlier once your first request is made your second request is no longer valid so you can't get the music and they also had it I also tried to do this really weird sketchy thing where I would make sure that my requests would get there at almost the exact same time like I did 10 seconds on my fake stream but then it would cut out because they only allow one stream at a time so that was pretty good and I couldn't exploit this and if you wanted to it would take a huge amount of time it really wouldn't be worth it they have hundreds of lives up to you skate a code and the bandwidth cap makes it so you can't really so some mitigations using current technology the one-time use tokens is definitely the best way for people from like I showed you before, right-clicking and opening a new tab and then saving it because the second request won't work I've also seen people use RTMP E streams so this is Adobe's protocol which they use and E stands for encrypted I just want everyone to know that just because your protocol has an E in it doesn't mean it's encrypted I've seen many services which have used regular RTMP non-encrypted traffic and just put the E as the protocol here and also returning the song in pieces really helps as well so SoundCloud actually did this a couple days before DEF CON but they named all the pieces in numerical order so that doesn't make it any more difficult for me to put them back together and for future proofing you can take a look at the HTML5 audio tag with DRM support and these guys from Virginia Tech wrote a paper on it I haven't really looked much into it because I know inherently that nothing's going to work but if someone's interested that's there and so these are the references I actually have uploaded the browser shark thing to the Google Play store whatever so that's the long URL I made it bitly if you trust me enough to click on it I assure you it's the same link I'm also putting this project on GitHub because I want it to be open source it's empty right now but I'm going to be putting stuff on there in the next couple days because I don't trust DEF CON Wi-Fi and then there's my blog I sometimes put interesting stuff on there sometimes don't, no guarantees and that's the paper and the JavaScript beautifier so there's my contact information if you want to talk to me and I'll take any questions now if anyone has any yes okay so the question is how I dealt with renaming in the exploit extension what I did was I wrote a script which would hook on to the page and I would use jQuery to take the file name and then the artist from the page itself because they provide that information so the user knows so I actually spent a good like several hours trying to synchronize all the songs together but that's how I did it yes because I don't like losing all my money to lawsuits apparently the way it's written is I can get sued for $20,000 per count of trafficking and they have millions of songs which would turn out to billions of dollars which I don't have yes I tried doing this with Spotify this guy in I think Norway or something did the same thing I was doing but happened to release the code for it several months before I gave this talk so they fixed it so it does not work with Spotify yes there is no DRM in any of these I think Pandora did a better job of that some of them allow users to upload their own songs and you will get really weird ads as your cover art so it just depends on the service yes there is no DRM in any of these these are just like straight like you can play it back like as you saw I was playing it back in my music player when I downloaded it any other questions alright cool


I came to this country when I was seven years old initially and then I went back for a year to Jamaica and then came back in nine. And I think my whole life in this country I've been wrestling with, what does it feel like to be a woman of Jamaican descent, an African woman of Jamaican descent living in the United States. And I feel like that condition has been one of wrestling with erasure even in the context of blackness in this country and feeling sort of outside what it means to be a citizen in this country even in the context of being black here as well. And all of that is reflected in my art. I've been wrestling with erasure of black women, black women being second class or third class citizens in this country and it's reflected in my sound as an artist. My music is melancholy, it's very much derived from the blues tradition, the African American blues tradition because I've been here for so long and love spirituals. And also, I think there's some muscle and body and spirit, memory of a blues tradition in Jamaica that I can't identify but I know that it must be in me and I must have traveled with it across the water. Creation or immigrant journey from the Caribbean in particular Trinidad and Toa and so just sharing space with him, feeling my excitement, all of the different feelings of being an immigrant in the US or in Canada but also within my work not only carrying my dad's Caribbean experience but also my experience as a person of Japanese descent and a Caribbean descent and Caribbean not only being exclusive to that geographical area, you know, I'm African, I'm Caribbean, I'm Latin American and really broadening this definition of Caribbean and black and how does that, how do I infuse that into my work not only using strictly a Caribbean influence because that's a conversation I feel like I'm often having with myself is that my work can be so many things and it can be continuously redefined based on how I'm thinking about black, female identity and that's continuously changing, it's fluid so it's not, there's not one answer to it, my art is continuously evolving based on these. But that too, like I feel like that really plays into my practice a lot too because it wasn't until I got here that I was thinking about myself as a woman who was like disallowed from certain things and then feel that pressure until I'm here and it's because of my directness of my mother and my grandmother at all times, it'd be like you want to do that thing? Okay, go do the thing. I never thought about it as like a thing that was something that I can't do because I'm a woman or a femme or anything like that, like no they would be like cool, my grandmother, I have a sugar cane tattoo because I grew up in the Cainfields, my grandfather used to work in the Cainfields but he used to work in administration and my grandmother would stay at home but she would be cutting in that yard, she would be working every minute of the day and even to this day she wakes up every morning and goes to the papers at 6am because you know why? Because I want to do this and it's just something I have to do for my family, somebody has to go get the news, somebody has to clean this house, somebody has to do the thing and it's just that, being able to identify a need and take it. What was your mom like? Absolutely, my mom and my grandma, I mean my grandmother would cut you in a second with her observations or she just wants to communicate something to you, like you have to know this but at the same time I know that there isn't another person in the world that wants to be the best for me in the way that they do and who thinks that I can be whatever I can dream and beyond so yeah, there's a certain, you're right, there's a certain resilience that that experience as hard as it may be sometimes comes to foster in us and it's a great contribution that we can make and have made just showing up really fully every day.  In addition to being inspired by life and love and spirituality, my identity as a Black woman inspires my artistic practice and the artworks that I create.


Lux presents Hollywood. The Lux Radio Theatre brings you in old Chicago starring Darville Amour, Robert Young and John Haudyac. Ladies and gentlemen, your producer, Mr. Cecil V. DeMille. Greetings from Hollywood ladies and gentlemen. In 1840 two Englishmen traveling in America tried to find the city of Chicago. They heard it was somewhere in the Middle West but they couldn't find a map that recognized its existence. How they made out finally I don't know but the story indicates how fast and furious was the growth of this spectacular dynamic city. Tonight in the Lux Radio Theatre we bring you a dramatic episode from the pageant of Chicago. A story of the city's violent birth and struggle for existence of love and treachery and sacrifice and of America's undying faith in the future. It's the 20th century Fox success in old Chicago and our stars are as promising as our play Robert Young, Dorothy Lamour and John Haudyac. If you saw the picture you may have been impressed as I was by the careful attention to reach historical detail from the dollar-studded floor of the Palmer House to the bar of soap in Molly O'Leary's wash tub. And notice I say bar of soap soap flakes like Lux were still a long way in the future. According to early Chicago methods you'll boil your clothes and scrub them with a cake of soap to get them clean. And when you got through you didn't have a shirt you had a handkerchief with sleeves. I think you'll agree that the modern luxury of using Lux Flakes is as far removed from that grisly experience as present day Chicago is from the muddy village of 1834. Ten years ago Chicago celebrated its 100th anniversary, a century of progress. And at the same time the Lux Radio Theater started its first season on the air. As you know next Monday night is our 10th anniversary. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank personally all those radio stations from coast to coast that have written me such hot warming letters of congratulations. It's certainly satisfying to know that the Lux Radio Theater has so many friends in the broadcasting industry as well as among the listening public. We asked you to help us select our 10th anniversary play for next week. And later tonight I'll tell you the play and stars we've chosen. But now it's curtain time. And here's the first act of an old Chicago starring Robert Young as Diane, Dorothy Lamour as Belle and John Hodiak as Jack. In 1854 on a desolate sweep of Illinois prairie land, a woman and three young boys are gathered around the prone figure of a dying man. First girl, you sure you're all right. And the young ones? Yes, not a scratch. Praise heaven.  Drag to my death by my own horses. It was a train that scared them. Drag to my death just when the smell of Chicago's in my nose. Molly, the boys. They're here, Pap. Yes. Jacqueline, Diane, Bob. Bob is here. Papa. Now, mind what I say, boys. So be wasted yourself, Pap. Please rest. Rest. It's my last breath I'm using, girl. And I'll have my say. Boys, there's a grand new place this Chicago. And them that grow with it will be rich and strong, like I always minded to be. Someday, they'll be fine big men. Credit to me and my name. And everybody's speaking with respect to the O'Leary's and how they grew up with this city and put their mark upon it. You hear me, lads? Yes, Father. Thank you. And, Molly, just letting me hear and let Chicago come to me that couldn't come to it. Molly, girl, Pap. 15 years later, and the Chicago that Pat O'Leary never lived to see is a raucous, roaring new metropolis, a place of easy money and easy ways, open night and day to newcomers from all over the world, a fighting, laughing, sprawling city in which O'Leary's wife and three sons have found their place, a place behind a sign which reads Mrs. Molly O'Leary's French Laundry. Ma! Hey, Ma, I'm back. What's the time? Something's ready. I got three bundles of water from Gil Warner and two from Mrs. Palmer. And she says to tell you, what are you MacCallum's emitting? Oh, she did. Well, you can tell a fine lady. She'll get them back once you pay for the soap she owed. Yes, ma'am. Now go see Joe Horton and come back and feed yourself. Ma! Oh, Ma! In here, Jack. Well, I'm back. How are you now? You should have been at the courthouse, Ma. I sure made him sit up today and take notice. Fine, boy, fine. You know what I told him? My client is right, I said, and you all know it. But who cares about fair play and justice these days, I said.  And how did a fine gentleman like that? Oh, he was sweating plenty. Yes, so was I all day. Now, help me carry this wash basket inside. Oh, sure, Ma. Then I said, but it takes more than money in politics to make a great city. It's going to take people with some sense of decency to make Chicago not only the biggest city in the world, but the best. Set it down, sir. It is a fine silver tongue you have, lawyer O'Leary.  And I told him, hey, Ma, look. Huh? Outside, it's a police wagon. And your brother, Dion. Dion, get in here. I'm home, Ma. A lovely day, Mrs. O'Leary. Thanks for the ride, Jim. Anytime, Dion. Always got room for you. Yep. And what's the mud on your shoes? Hello, Ma. Jack. Hi. Coming home in the police wagon. Sorry, you lost your case, Jack. Lost? You lost your case? Oh, forgot to tell you, Ma. I judged this semester. But I thought you won. Everybody's talking about you downtown. Said you had the whole courtroom hypnotized. Everybody but Judge Bender. I'd have had him, too, except it was Gil Warner who made him judge. Well, supper's ready.  Well, they're not interested in eating Ma married six months and still in love. So get cleaned up. Ma, when are you going to quit this laundry business? And why should I be quitting? Because I don't want my best girl looking at a wash tub all her life. No, I'll get your new house. Not here in the patch, either. I'll set you up like the finest lady in town. Look, Ma. Dyer, all that money. Where did you get it? Well, there were eight horses in the race, mine and seven others. All we had to do was shoot the seven others. Again? And I told you 100 times I'll not be living on money that isn't honestly got. All right, but give us a kiss then, huh? The back of my hand you'll get. Oh, come on, come on. Dyer, now stop it. A kiss, I said. Come on. There. Now get along with you. Mr. Dyery. Come along, girl. I was just starting a new wash. Look, look, this tablecloth. It's Gil Warners. Yeah. I will not wash tablecloth. And Gil Warners has been used to draw pictures on. Back it goes. Hello, Gretchen. Hello, Dyer. Hey, wait a minute. This drawing, it's a map. He's drawn a map on a tablecloth. And look, something about Randolph Street. Let me see it. Yeah, Randolph and Madison. And these lines here, they look like the tracks for the horse car lines.  It means they're going to run a new car line on Randolph Street. Oh, you're crazy. They've already surveyed Madison Street. Sure they have. That's exactly what makes me so sure the car line will be on Randolph. You know, maybe you're right. Of course I'm right. Warner gets people to invest on Madison Street, and then he switches the line to a street where he owns the property. If you are right, this tablecloth is worth a fortune. And I'm going to get part of it.   I'd put up the biggest saloon in Chicago. Saloon. Free beers to you, Mrs. O'Leary. I wouldn't be setting my foot within a mile of it. You're too late, Dion. Look, there's a name scribbled on that corner already. B-F-A-W-C-T. Porsche. Ever hear of him? No, new to me. Well, I'm sorry I can't stay for supper, but I've got an idea. You will stay for supper. Easy now, sweetheart. This is big business. The man. Where you going? Down to the hub. Another saloon. Gil Warner saloon. That's right. I'm calling on Gil Warner, and I'm going to find out about this fellow B. Porsche. I'll see you later. Well, good evening, Mr. Warner. Oh, I am. Good to see you. I'd like to talk to you, Mr. Warner. Oh, kind of private. I thought maybe we could do that. Not just now, son. Anyway, I think you'd rather look at who's coming out there on the stage than waste time talking to me, stage. Ladies and gentlemen, your host, Mr. Gil Warner, presents the singing sensation from New York City, Mr. Bill Porsche. Bill Porsche. B. Porsche, that's right. She knew here? Yeah. She was the biggest hit in the Blue's Garden in New York ever had. What do you think of her?  Yeah, that's right.   Make me fly. I wonder why. I've known you forever in me. Oh, it seems you've shown up in all of my dreams. All my dreams. But now I'm awake and my dreams have come true. I'm full of romance and I've taken a fancy to what I owe you. You're the one that's talking now, Diane. I'll just go inside and talk. Oh, forget it. I found out all I want to know.  Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. See, no gentleman in this hat bestens me. Oh, have a heart. I've got to see her. Well, you can see her when Mr. Warner tells me OK. So go away. Sorry to do this, Ms. Fawcett. Ms. Bell, we've been both in on them. Will you get out of here? Please, I have to see you, Ms. Fawcett.  I guess so. I was sane enough until I saw you and then something happened to me. I've never felt this way before. I'll never feel this way again. I'm going to get Ms. Wong. Wait a minute. What are you talking about? I'm in love with you. Give me just 10 minutes, five minutes. Ms. Bell, you want to have your scream for you? Nobody has to scream. Oh, I know I sound crazy and I apologize, but it's true. I'm shaking all over and I want to be calm and cool so I can make you understand. Hattie, go inside. Yes, but I exactly can tell about it. Who are you? I'm Dianna Leary. You never heard of me, but what does that matter? It matters a lot when someone comes breaking in. Well, I had to talk to you alone. All right, let's go downstairs and have some supper. Oh, no, not here. It's too crowded. I figured you might prefer taking me to your face. All right, I will. What? But your story had better be good. Hattie? Ma'am? Get us a carriage. Yes, ma'am. It's that house on the right, driver. Oh, oh, no, the next one. Oh, the next one, driver. Yes, sir. There. The one with the horse trough and trough. Horse trough, hmm? Well, that should help me find it next time. I'm sure it will. Here you are, driver. So this is where you live. Way up there on the second floor, see? Oh, up there on the corner, hmm? That's right. The house with the horn. Oh, no. Hey. Driver, quick. Take me back to the hub. Yes, ma'am. Hey, wait. Wait. Yes, sir.  Beautiful, ma'am. Sing like a lark, not a better figure in Chicago, excepting Mrs. Molly O'Leary. So you're in love at last? Love? Well, sure, I'm in love with you. And I suppose it's for me you're slicking down your hair and staring at yourself in the mirror just as I saw that shirt. Take it all. Oh, but ma'am, I just borrowed it from that pile in the kitchen. It's a beaut. Say, who do these embroidered initials stand for? DBS. His name is Swift. He sells pigs, and he gets his shirt in the morning. Now off with it. Oh, but ma'am, look how it fits, like it was made for me.  I'll wear the shirt tonight. You bring me in the morning. I'm warning you, Diana O'Leary. Ma'am. Up here, Jack. Ma, I won it. I won my first case. Jack. The judge said it was the best piece he's heard all this session, and so did the lawyer from the other side. Well, ma'am, there's one of us you can be proud of. And I fell off in the tribute and said he was going to write it up. Jack, lad, your name in the paper. Oh, glory be to you. How much did you get? What kind of a feat? Oh, well, you see, my client only makes $10 a week, and he's got seven kids. $10 a week? That's 10 more than you make. Diane, I couldn't take his money. Could I, ma'am? I give up. I've got one son that steals my laundry and another a lawyer who never gets paid. I should have brought the two up of your up as good Irish bricklayers, and every Saturday an envelope with some money in it. I'll have you out of the patch yet, and servants waiting on you.  I may be late. Oh, pooch. Oh, pooch, indeed. Well, any messages? Well, none except for heap more roses and bottle stuff. Lord, honey, you sure got that man snortin' in his sleep. Well, I hope you threw them out. Oh, but the champagne, Miss Bear, you know what a mess busted bottles me.  I told him and told him till I was black in the face. Good. Oh, it's great. I can hardly breathe. Well, all these men like the small ways of gas and that stuff. You won't miss anything? No. I'll be going to the hub in a little while, but I won't need you, Hattie. Good night. Oh, good night, Miss Bell. Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. Hello? You. Wait. Get out of here. Oh, Belle, look. Get out. Hattie? Ma'am? Help, please. Who mean by breaking in here? I didn't break in all. I did was lie to your landlord. Told him I was your brother. I wanted to surprise you. He'd sneak me in the back way. You'll go to jail the front way. All I wanted to talk to you. But before I want to talk, I want a kiss. One kiss.  That was wonderful. Thank you. Now then, you own a piece of property on Randolph Street. Well, of all the. I thought that if you and I were to build a place like Gil Warner's, like the hub, only with more class, we could make a lot of money. Oh, well, why didn't you say so in the first place? I'm always interested in the business deals. You are? Of course I am.  I'm all so crazy about you. And I'm sorry. Well, it's better. I mean, I'm sorry, but I think I got to have another kiss. You. All right in there, also, right in there. Uh-oh. Mama, look at that. Yeah, I thought you said there was murder going on. Sorry, boss. Ain't I the one? Here's the idea. First of all, Gil Warner's going to be awfully sore. That means we've got to get backing and protection. The police commissioner and Senator Colby. So get your hat bell. You and I have got a couple of business calls to make. So far, so good. Now, here's the proposition, commissioner. I'm listening. Full protection for Miss Fawcett and me. And for you and your little ones, $100 in cash every Saturday from now on. Are you trying to bribe me, Larry? Why, commissioner, how can you mention such a word? Oh, now that you're alone, Senator, Mr. O'Leary has something that I think will interest you. Indeed. I've heard tell of you, O'Leary. I understand you exert some influence in the patch. Only a little, Senator. Gil Warner controls the patch and all its votes. You need votes. And as long as Warner gets along with no opposition, he has you and the machine just where he wants you. But who knows? The day may come when Warner will get other ideas. Ideas that may be embarrassing. And so we have an offer to make. Miss Fawcett here is the greatest attraction that ever came to Chicago. Indubitively, my dear. Now with your backing and your money to get it started, Bell and I will open Chicago's best cafe on the busiest corner in town. Once we have that, I promise you I'll get control of the patch. Well, as soon as we're operating, a package will come to your home once a month. In it, there'll be $110 bill. Well, no, Senator, not well. Are you in or not? I'm always in the market for marketable commodities. I'll have a check for you in the morning. Thank you. We'll meet again, Senator. Good-bye, Senator. Good-bye. You're the strangest man I've ever known, Diane. Nothing strange about me. I just got ambition. Yes. Good luck, partner. Good luck, partner. Our stars Robert Young, Dorothy Lamore, and John Hodiak will be back in just a moment for act two of an old Chicago. Sadly, what on earth?  Well, I am. Three months ahead of time? For you, maybe, but not for the girls and boys overseas. Oh, of course. October 15th is the deadline for mailing Christmas gifts overseas. And that means for wax and army nurses, too. What are you sending? Slips for the girls over there. Solid dread? I should say not. Look, aren't they pretty? This tearoad's been with a luscious lace at the bottom of the honey. And the wax like frivolous undies? You bet they love them. The lace here, the better. And no matter where they are, it's easy to find luck to take care of them. The TXs do a terrific sale on luxe plates. Yeah, but what do the wax do about hot water? Mr. Kennedy, I'm surprised at you. Oh, they don't need it. You'd never use hot water on rayon undies. Why, you could ruin the color. Loop warm luxe studs do a perfectly swell job. And undies stay lovely lots longer that way. Three times longer, isn't it? Well, that's exactly what tests showed. You should see the slips they tested. The difference is simply amazing. Handling a slip roughly and using strong soaps and hot water makes the color fade much too soon. The very same kind of slips wash the luxe way while you could hardly tell them from you. So keep your slips new looking longer, the gentle luxe way. Now, Mr. DeMille returns to the microphone. Act two of an old Chicago, starring Dorothy Lamour as Belle, Robert Young as Dian, and John Haudiac as Jack. A year has passed, and Molly O'Leary is still at her wash tub and ironing board. But for her three sons, there have been many changes. Bob the Youngest is a brand-new father. Jack is no richer than he was, but his courage as a lawyer is spreading his pain throughout Chicago. And Dian, plunging into the greatest gamble of his life, is about to reap the rewards. The lavish cafe which he and Belle fostered have built has just opened its mahogany doors. And among the multitude of first-night guests is the politician, Gil Warner. Come into the office, Gil. Here, I hope you don't mind my pulling you away from all those friends of yours, huh? Come here. Jim Denney, please, you've got Dian. Shall I close the door? Maybe that would be a good idea. Yes, sir, I'm proud of you. You're being too nice, Warner. I'm suspicious. I am not sore, Dian. Live in Lettley, if I say. And, uh, how's Belle? I don't blame you for taking Belle away from me. Great girl. I'd have married Belle if I'd had the chance. Do you know that? Come on, come on. What's on your mind? What's on my mind? Heh. Sure, I'm thinking of running for mayor. You see, I've been electing mayors so long, I figure I'd like to elect myself. Well, where do I come in? I'm telling you where. Now, if I wanted to be a mayor, I could give you a lot of trouble, boy. Build a cafe even bigger than this one. But I don't want to fight. If you say the word, I'll even close the hub. Give Belle and me an open field. This is a nice place, son, but a tinder box.  But, uh, pulling together, there's plenty of room here for you and Belle and me. Well, it sounds fine, Warner, but, naturally, there's a little expense involved. And right now, with the opening of all of us, I took the liberty of bringing along my check for $10,000. There'll be more between now and election time. As I was saying, I think things will work out very nicely, Your Honor. Yes.  Nice and smart. Now, how about my saying good evening to Belle, huh? Well, I should be sore if you didn't. We'll see her backstage. She's singing in a couple of minutes. Belle. Hello, Gil.  You know, Diane, I always said she was the best lawyer Chicago ever saw. Thanks, but I also sing. I just want you to know that I'm going to get you back if I can. But it looks as though it won't be to the hub. Gil's closing the hub, Belle, for good. But why?  That's your music. Yes, but I'll tell you about it later.  We just talked a few things over in the office. Let's go back and I'll tell you all about it. What about an offer? Oh, let him wait. This is more important. You're taking the $10,000? Well, the check's good, isn't it? Well, you know very well how Gil feels about us. Ever since I left his place, he's been boiling. And now you want to help him get even. Don't you know what he can do to us if he's mayor? What makes you think he's going to be mayor? Look, if necessary, I'll even vote for Warner myself. I've said nothing about how the patch will vote. But that's... Politics. Gil would knife me if he could, and I simply mean to beat him to it.  Oh, but you love me. Certainly not. Come on, say it before I... Of course I love you. That's better. I've got all the world, Belle. You and this place and Warner on the run and... Yeah? It's Jack. Can I come in? Jack? Well, don't look so surprised. We may not agree in politics, but you don't think I'd miss your opening, do you? Thanks. Oh, Belle. Well, you're finally meeting him, my brother Jack. It's about time. It certainly is. And now Dion isn't the only member of the family who thinks you're beautiful. Hey, now, take it easy. Well, Dion, got licked in court again today. So I heard. One of your boys, Mitch Stacey. He was guilty, wasn't he? Mm-hmm. Got away, though. I give you credit, you're awfully slick. What's all this about? It's simple, Belle. I've been made a special prosecutor. With election coming up, I've been trying to crack down on all those phony votes in the patch.  And naturally, I put a witness on the stand who knew Mitch. She testified beautifully. And then Dion's lawyer made a mucky out of me. I shouldn't think that would be... Oh, so easy. This woman, my witness, was married to Mitch years ago. They never got a divorce. And when Jack wound up his case, all we had to do was remind the judge that a wife can't testify against her husband. So I lost. But someday, Dion, I'll start winning my cases. That's the way to talk. Strange, isn't it, Belle? Dion on one side and me on the other, fighting each other.  You really ought to meet Ma. I'd love to. And do one more thing for me. Keep an eye on this fella. He's getting up in the world so fast that Mike go to his head. And I kind of hate to have to knock it off. I'll try. Well, I've got some work to do. Oh, but we're going to have a party. I hope to, too. A reform party. See you soon. Goodbye, Jack. Bye. Oh, he's swell, Dion. Don't make him any better. That was nice of him wanting me to meet your mother. I've been thinking about that myself. Don't. I understand how she feels about me. Oh, Ma's all right. A little old-fashioned maybe, like Jack. He's real, Dion. He believes everything he says. Can you imagine that, Jack, the mayor Jack would make if he had half a chance? Well, he could have had half a chance if he hadn't mixed up with that reform crowd. With my healthy... Wait a minute. I've got an idea. What? I just figured out how to spend Gil Warner's check. Honey, this is the best yet. Come on, I've got to see some of the boys. Gentlemen! Gentlemen, I agree with everything you've said, but I still don't understand. This delegation, what is it you want me to do? We can't just feel thoroughly, Mr. O'Leary. You're the man we want to run from mayor. That's right. But I don't know you. I don't even know who you represent. They're respectable people of Chicago, the people who want an honest city. And that's why we've organized this reform party. It's a great opportunity for you. You've got a chance to carry every district, except perhaps Gil Warner's pat. But your brother's influential there, Mr. O'Leary. Surely he'll support him. I'm afraid we can't count on my brother. Well, your O'Leary's are a strange tribe. Well, you do it, Mr. O'Leary. Chicago needs you. Thanks. I'll do it. We may not win, but we'll put up a fight they won't forget. Yes, I'll run for mayor. What did he say? What answer did he give you? Well, his answer was yes. Your brother's going to run. Good. Great. And when you suggested that I'd support him, he said he was afraid we couldn't count on you. Well, at least he's agreed to run. That's the first step. Well, what worries me, boss, is can you control him once he's in? He's a pretty stubborn Irishman. Tell me that to me. O'Leary's are a strange tribe. Funny. He said the very same word. This is the first time you've been to my office. Uh-uh, third time. But since you made up your mind to be our next mayor, you're never here. Well, how's it going? A month ago, I thought I might have a chance. Now I don't know in the time to get any close. Yeah, and I want to help you. Help you? Why not? Of course I couldn't support you openly. You know how I feel about the patch. Of course. No strings attached. In fact, you and my brother isn't going to mean a thing. No, stop arguing, will you? If you stood in the way of something I felt should be done, I'd go after you as fast as anyone else. I'm a dead earner, Dion. I've got great hopes for Chicago, and that means wiping out the patch. Jack, I don't need a speech. Save it for your rally tonight. I just wanted to be sure you know exactly how I stand. Now that that's over, how about lunch? Fine. Incidentally, why don't you get Bell and come over to the house tonight and take Ma for a drive? Because you know Ma. Oh, we've got a couple of beers under a belt. Bell's grand. We've got to make Ma meet it. Okay, but Heaven help us if it doesn't work out. Gee, that was good, Ma. You're still the best cook in Chicago. Here, have some more beer. Well, a drop, perhaps. Thank you, lad.  What's that? I've met her, Ma. I think she's fine. I'll meet no girl at the talk of the town and her kicking her heels in the air for anyone to see. Oh, when you were a little one, Dion, and me over at Tub, I used to dream of the day when you'd bring me home a sweet one and her old blushes and presently with fine grandsons as would be like something I own, only better. Well, Ma, it's my own life. Sure, it's that. Hey, Dion. Yes, Ma? Your carriage is here. Oh, thanks.  Then why not you too? Because there's a rally in the armory. Ah, I forgot. And I'm supposed to speak. How about it, Ma? I'll do it. And back in time to go to the rally. Don't worry about the dishes. I'll do it. See? I'll get your coat and hat. Greek up, old lady. I've got a real surprise for you. Indeed. Sure. Two of the fastest-stepping mayors you ever saw. Take you all over town. I prefer to see the lake. Oh, see the lake. Oh, an elegant carriage dial. Elegant.  Keep them closed now. I'll open the door. Now, for one step, that's it. And there you are. Get going, Joe. Oh, and such lovely cushions. Oh, just a little. Ma, this is Miss Fawcett. This is Belle. A trick? You tricked me. But you're going to see a lot of Belle, so you may as well get used to it. Good devil, I will. I can get you now. Well, stop being so stubborn.  I'll get out, Diane. You'll go along with her. Sit still, both of you. Keep going, Joe. Stop this contraction. Stop her. I'll jump out. Sit down. Oh, wait till I get you alone, the honolieries. I'll have a few things to say to her myself. Oh, you will, will you? I wanted to be nice. I wanted you to like me. But that Irish lunkhead son of yours, what does he think he's doing to me? Belle, please. So, my son's an Irish lunkhead. And how would you like to be treated? You with your grand manners. Like any girl who's going to be his wife has a right to be treated. Diane, I'll never marry you. Never. And now, if you'll stop this thing, I'll be taking my leave. Ah, pull up, Joe. Okay, ma. Never mind. I'll get out. You'll do no such. It's you he'd be fading away in terror of walking, not me. Ma, ma, please. And a fine good night to you, I'm sure. Oh, how could you do this, Diane? Well, I didn't think Ma would act like that. You'd better go get her, Diane, and take her to the rally. She shouldn't miss Jack's speech when it's over. I'll meet you at the cafe. Yeah. I'm sorry, Belle. Forget it. Oh, honey, how's it going? Oh, we can handle. How did it go at the armory? The rally? Not much better than you and Ma in the carriage. Oh, what happened? Oh, water had the place packed. They broke it up before Jack finished. Oh, that's awesome. Jack's no politician. He'll never beat Warner. Never say never about politics. What are you up to now? What would happen if all Gilles Warner's wardhealers and peer watches fail to show up three days from now? Fail to show up on election day? That's right. If that happened, Warner wouldn't stand much chance of winning, would he? That's why I'm having a little talk with a police commissioner. Well, you won't have to go far. He's waiting now up in your office. I know it. I told him he'd better be here. Diane, I can't throw them in jail. Why? Why, there's too many of them. Hundreds. Besides, Gilles Warner's my friend. I'll be ruined. For doing your duty? They're crooked. The whole lot of them. Oh, com commissioner, be a man. Warner, kill me. Besides, what you're asking is against all my principles. You get $100 a week for doing what I tell you to do. None of that. Every cent was in cash. Oh, sure. But every week, a different man brought it to you. Meaning exactly what? Meaning that I've got a dozen witnesses if you ever get any ideas that I don't like. What do you want me to do? On Monday night, the night before the election, Gilles Warner's giving the biggest part of the patch he's ever seen. Plenty of free liquor and food. Everybody will be there. Then somehow, the fight's going to start. Yes, yes, I see. I'll take care of that. Your job is to be standing by with every cop in Chicago. Because Gilles Warner and all these boys are going to spend the election day in jail. Where is the commissioner? Go into the sanatorium, Mr. Warner. Where? What sanatorium? Can't give out the address, sir. Dr. Zortis. Where's Judge Bender then? Get him in here. Judge Bender left on a hunting trip, sir. All the judges went on a hunting trip. They've organized a hunting club. Then, Senator Colby, get off that chair and find Colby. Yes, sir. Where do I come on your list, Gilles? Down. Just the man. I'm tired, hand in foot. Every man in this jail controls 20 votes. Enough to swing the election and not one of them at the polls. What am I going to do? You're going to stop squawking. What did you say? You're through, Gilles. I sold you out. Sergeant. Yes, sir. You can put Mr. Warner back in his cell. Sorry to rush off, Gil, but I've got a boat to cast for Jack O'Leary. Jack, I can't tell you how happy I am. Congratulations. I licked him, Belle. I licked the machine. You did that yesterday. Don't you believe it yet? No. That doesn't seem possible. Where's Diane? Well, it's a little early yet. He'll be here soon. Belle, I'm here to plead for your help. I'm going to clean out the patch. This place, too? Yes. But all of Diane's money is tied up in a check. Mine, too. We've a long way to go before we get it back. That's why I'm here. To tell Diane if he doesn't see it my way, there's going to be trouble. He's a great person. He can go anywhere. Do anything. If only he gets on the right track. Belle, I want to see him marry. You have a home and kids. Start to live. Don't you think that's what I've been hoping for? Enough to help me now? Help you do what? Diane couldn't stand a public investigation. You know how he operates. But if I can't bring him to his senses, that's what I'll have to do. I'd like to use you as the chief witness against him. Let you tell the whole story of how he's won things down here. How do you feel about that, Belle? I'm glad you're here, Diane. Just want you and Belle to understand my position. Thanks. I think we catch on. I told you this before the election. And I promised it to the people who made me mayor. I made you mayor, not the people. You? Sure. I sent that delegation to see you. I paid for the campaign, ran it, framed it, threw one in his gang in the jail. Even voted for you myself. Then I'll believe it. It's true, Jack. Why did you do it? Oh, a lot of reasons. I wanted to see if I could.  All right. You elected me. But I'm mayor anyway. And I'm Chicago. I hate to have to kick you out. You'd better listen to him, Diane. What are you going to get out of this? Nothing. But I happen to have sense enough to see what Jack's after, even if you haven't. OK. But if you're going in for reform, Belle, I guess we won't be seeing much of each other. You're not walking out on Belle. Oh, no. She's the one who's walking out, Jack. Now go ahead. Investigate. We pause now for station identification. CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. Before the curtain rises on Act 3 of in Old Chicago, we go to a city humming with war industries. It's early in the morning at the small apartment of two girl war workers. Oh, dear, my sleepy. Stop ringing. Oh, where is that darn clock? What's the matter, dude? It's under the bed somewhere. I'll get it. Ouch. There. I've got a nice big bump on my head just for you.  I'm terribly sorry. Oh, it seems like every time I move a stocking, those pop.  Now don't start telling me about luck. How about another pair of stockings? You're going to get them. From you? From me. And I'm going to wash them for you. Wash them in luck? Yes. Luck's plate. And if you don't avoid a lot of those runs, I'll eat my alarm clock. Then Susie have to eat her alarm clock? Here's Peg two weeks later. Say, kid. Yep. There's something in that. Luck's talk after all. Sure. Why, they say they made ever so many tests. Oh, forget about the tests. Look at me. No runs for ages. That's what I mean. Those strain tests showed that luck makes stockings last twice as long. It's like getting an extra pair every time you buy one. Sue is right. It certainly pays to use luck's flakes for your stockings, whether they are rayon, cotton, silk, or your last precious nylon. Rubbing with a cake of soap or using strong soap makes stockings go into runs ever so much faster. So here it is in a rhyme. For extra wear from every pair, use safe luck's care. And now, Mr. DeMille returns to the microphone. After the play, you're all invited backstage to meet our stars in person. Now here's the third act of an old Chicago. Darling Robert Young as Dianne O'Leary, John Hoodiac as Jack, and Dorothy Lamour as Belle Thorstett, who now relates our story. There was no choice opened to Jack O'Leary. Whatever feeling he had for Dianne or for me, he flung aside and hid the determination to blast every crooked element out of Chicago. Senator Colby fled to safety in Canada, and the next day, Jack asked the grand jury for indictment against Gil Warner and Dianne. His plans for me were different. I was to help him. But when the time grew close, the thought that my testimony would send Dianne to prison was too much for me. Early one night, I slipped away to the railroad station. There was a train leaving from New York. Running away won't help you, Belle. Dianne! It won't help Jack either. But I can't tell them what I know, Dianne. They'll send you to prison. That's not as bad as losing you. How did you know I was losing you? I still have a few friends among the police. They've been watching. Dianne, I... I'd better get on the train while I can. Just let me say one thing. Please, Dianne. I don't ask you to forgive me. I guess I've said and done things you can't forgive, but you've got to believe this. I love you, Belle. I'll always love you. It's over, Dianne. It has to be. You can't change in a moment any more than I can. I can't do without you, Belle. In some strange way, I think maybe you need me, too. I want you to marry me. Now, tonight, say yes, Belle, please. You know I will, don't you? I can't use reason against you, darling. I never could. Don't try. Oh, Belle. I know just the man's Marius. Jack, his first wedding. Oh, darling. Don't ever let me leave you again. By the right of authority in me, vested by the State of Illinois, I pronounce you Dianne O'Leary and you Belle Fossett, lawfully married husband and wife. Well, it doesn't say so in the book, but I think a kiss comes next. Come here, Mrs. O'Leary. I wouldn't take a million dollars for this moment. Hey, this makes us kissing, too, Belle. I wish your mother would say that. Oh, she will. While we're all here, there's just one other little matter I'd like to clear up. It'll keep. Not for long, it won't. Jack, wife can't testify in court against her husband, can she? Dianne. Do you still want Belle to appear tomorrow?  How could you, Dianne? How could you? Now, wait a minute, honey. Our getting married has got nothing to do with the jam I'm in. Or what? Don't lie anymore, Dianne. Don't. I'm not lying. Marrying you is the best thing I ever did in my life. At least the shrewdest. Oh, don't say that. But if marrying you now could stop you from testifying and that Jack was dumb enough not to see it. Get out of here. Get out. Come on, Belle. I'm not going, Dianne. I said come on.  Get out of here, Jack. I'm sorry, Belle. I'll take you home. Jack left me at my hotel. I was dazed. Tears didn't help nor calling myself every kind of a fool. How could I believe that Dianne said? And yet, how could I not believe him? There always are men like Dianne and always women like me. He could do anything in the world to me, I think, and I still would love him. But as I thought what makes to do, something was happening at the O'Leary home that changed all our lives. Ma, Ma, where are you? I'm in the barn, feeding a cow. Oh, come now, Ma. I'm stuffed at you, then, Jabber, and talk to him. Oh, bit him or did bit me, come. Think what? They did it. Dianne and Belle got married. What? Yeah, Jim Fellow's just on by to tell us. He was there at the city hall and there was a fight. Dianne and Jack. Married? Fight? Talk to him. Oh, that's all I know, but I'm going after him and find out. Wait, I'll go with you. Dianne's fighting and marrying that creature behind my back. Well, get ready, Ma. He'll be out in front. He'll be driving downtown, but no matter. Just climb in, Ma. And hold tight. Yeah, of course. Fight! Move it! Move it! Now, Ma! Step back! I haven't helped us. I left the lantern there. Get the baby. I'll go after the cow. Ma, water bucket. Ready, Dianne. Very, very far! Make the alarm, Belle. Everybody, loud! Come in, Warner. Have a drink. I was hoping you'd say that. But don't look so suspicious, boys. I'm here all alone and I'm not out for trouble. You don't expect me to believe that, do you, Gil? After what I did to you? Oh, water over the dam. Someday you'll make it up to me, son. You're too smart not to. Sure. Someday. Here. I heard you just got married, son. Where's the... Something else you may not know. Your brother just swore in 500 deputies. They'll be coming down here to run us out of the patch. Nobody's running me out of the patch. I didn't think so, but... You know what he said? He said he wouldn't leave his sticker stone standing here. Well, let them come. We'll be ready for them. That's it, Dion. Since once was Chicago afraid of police. Let Jack start it, then Heaven help him. Drink up, boys. It's on the house. Drink up. Come on. Dion! Yeah? Fire was a big fire over on the Coving Street. The whole street's gone. So he couldn't wait, could he? Burning us out. The mayor is burning us out. Yeah, he said he'd get it. Yeah, to take time to condemn the patch legally. He couldn't wait. Stay here, all of you. I'll be back in a little while. Wait a minute. You can't go after him alone. Get all the boys together here. I'll be back. The mayor's asked for a fight and I'm gonna see that he gets it. My new funny business. What is? Well, nothing, except those old eerie brothers who pulled some awful fancy tricks. And I wouldn't put it past them to do it again. Now, you're crazy, Gil. You heard what Dion said. No one's gonna burn him out, brother or no brother. I hope not. But I'd like to be certain. Gil's right. We got something to say about this. All of us. Well, listen to me. I say we can't wait until Dion gets back. We gotta work fast. Now, clear out of here, all of you. Spread the word around. Get every man you can and meet at the armory. If Dion wants to help, that's fine. But Dion or no, we're gonna get Zach O'Leary. Dion came first to my hotel. I wouldn't see him. He stood outside my door shouting something about a fire and begged me to leave. His lies I thought were becoming more shabby. And then he said he couldn't wait. He had to get to the patch to find his mother. When he was gone, I went to the window. He hadn't glied. I could see the city hall. There were men on the roof pointing to the terrible red mass that was leaking closer and closer to the heart of the city. And among the men was Jack O'Leary. The patch is like tinder. There hasn't been a drop of rain in over two months. Well, we can't control it. There's too much wind. Look, it's jumping ahead, blocks at a time. Here's General Sheridan, man. What do we do, General? There's only one thing we can do. Make a fire, break at the edge of the patch. Blow out that entire section along Randall Street. Pipe the fire with dynamite, but pipe it. Then mobilize the militia, swearing all the deputies you need. Clear out the patch. Send the people north, right down to the lake. Requisition all the food stuff they'll need. Donovan, Johnson, Muller. Right here, right here. Get to a telegraph. Call Milwaukee, St. Louis. We need every piece of fire apparatus they can send us. Wire watchings and relief relief, maybe even federal troops. And keep me advised. Where will you be, sir? Down at the patch with General Sheridan. Bob. Bob! Where's Ma? He's gone to the north side. That's when the baby are with him. They had to go. Our house was the first to burn.  Why did you let him do it? To what? Jack started the fire. Jack hasn't been near here. The fire started in our barn. How much he kicked over the lantern. Bob, they'll kill him.  What are you talking about? Every gang in the patch, they all think Jack started the fire to burn us out. We've got to stop them. We've got to find them. Where is he? I don't know, but I know where that mob is. They're waiting for me. Come on. Get that dynamite fighters. Set the fuses. Sergeant! Get back! All police lines back at full block. No one gets through here. Yes, sir. How many men here call for clear this street? How many on the double? Let me through here. Let me through. Get back. We're going to dynamite. Dynamite? Firebreak. Open up. Now back, back, everybody. Let them through the lake. We've got to get to the lake. You're warning this mob is somewhere around here. We've got to find them. Look, there's Jack. Jack! Jack! I told you to clear that. My brother, I've got to get to him. Hey, Jack! Bob! Where's Bob? I don't know. They left for the lake. Jack, listen. I've got to talk to you. I'm taking all I'm going to from you. Get out of here. They're after you, Jack.  We're dynamiting the patch and nobody's going to stop us. Not you or anyone else. Jack, you don't understand. I understand. He owns that cafe across the street. He'd do anything to save it. He'll warn her and his mob are out to get you.  It's my fault. I thought you did too, Jack. You've got to believe me. Hey, there they are. They're coming. Warners gang. All right. Let them come. I believe you, Dion. They know that we're together again and thinking alike. Let them come. Just like I told you in the old area. Man, listen. Listen. The fire was an accident. My brother had nothing to do with it. Get your man out of here, Warners. No. No. We're not moving there. We live here in the patch. It's not all burned out yet. And we're not going to let you dynamite. We're trying to save the city. Then save. Touch off that dynamite though and you blow us up with it. We're not budget. They're all set, ma'am. Everybody's out of these areas. Save the word. I'll send in the man. Light the fuses. Hold them back, Jack. I'll light them myself. You've got rocks, boys. Use them. Yeah, yeah. Giant kids. They've hit him. Anybody else want to light those fuses? That's exactly what I'm going to do, Warners. I'm with you, Jack. Close in, you men. Close in. It'll be one of you against ten of us, General. I'm warning you. Keep those troops away. Close in. Close in. I got it. Get them out of here, Bob. Where are you going?  I'm lighting the fuses. He's lighting the dynamite, too. As I fought my way through the burning street and crashing timbers, I heard the explosion. I knew they meant the end of the patch, but I didn't know until later that they also meant the end of Jack O'Leary. The panic was on now. A panic of screaming, fighting humanity, struggling insanely against the inferno and themselves in a frantic surge toward the safety of Lake Michigan. I was carried along like a leaf in a mill stream. And then I fell. As I got up, I saw a line in the brick. No, go on. Go on. Save yourself. Mrs. O'Leary, please. You must try. Lean on me. We'll make it. It's my leg. I... Oh, it's you. It's you. Give me your arm. Hurry. I'll not be only my life to you. I won't leave you. You and I are you. Yes. Yes, it was the only way he could save the patch, so he married me. He loves you. You turned him against his own people. He doesn't love me. Please, we must get out of here. No. I can't. I'm done for it. Get away while you can.  I won't leave you. I can't. I'll get help. Someone will help us. Someone! Look out! Go! Go! Diane, any... Any word of them? Ma or Belle. I've been all over the North Shore. Gretchen and the baby is the one. No, I'll try the South Shore. Diane, look. Belle. It's Belle and Ma. They're alive. They're safe. All mine, darling. And Ma. Well, I should have bandaged, but we're living. Diane. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Diane. Oh, Diane. Any of them? There are they. Where? Gretchen and the baby. They're all right, Ma. And Jack? Ma, he's here. He's dead. You made it up with him. Sure, Ma. I made it up with him. Then I'll not be weeping. As a living that need looking after.  Go to my daughter. Don't stand there gawking at me. It's she who loves you, Diane.  Go to my daughter. Don't stand there gawking at me. It's she who loves you, Diane.  Go to my daughter. Don't stand there gawking at me. It's she who loves you, Diane. And her love for you saved me. Well? It's gone, Diane. The whole city. Jack's gone with it. But what he stood for will never die. It was a city of wood and now it's ashes. But out of the fire will be coming steel. We'll live to see it in. And our children will see it. And he'll have his dream. Nothing can stop this city now any more than it could stop him. Yes.  What they set out to do, they finished. I know. I'm one of them. For our stars to turn for a curtain call, here's Libby Collins, and looking very thoughtful. You know, I was wondering, John, were you a brunette when you were a baby? Gosh, I don't know. But my relatives insist I was the reddest thing they ever saw. That's just it. Most babies aren't really beautiful when they're tiny, so they need a little showmanship to set them off. How do you mean? Old guys sticking to becoming colors. Just a smart grown-up stew. Now pink, for instance, can make a red-faced baby look even redder. Well, what would you suggest for the crib and creeper set? Flattering pastels. Canary yellow is lovely for dark-haired darling. Light, light blue sets off a blonde, and a redhead would be irresistible and see-green. Always pastels, of course. Strong soaps could easily ruin those delicate colors. It'd be a shame to spoil dainty baby dresses and sweaters with harsh treatment like strong soap and hot water. And that goes for blankets and washable baths and neck curings, too. All those pretty color things need gentle luxe care to keep the colors lovely longer. Don't babies still wear lots of white, too? Mm-hmm. Sheriffs and diapers need luxe care, too, so they'll stay soft and comfy. Then, if you've got a baby at your house, you ought to have a big box of luxe plates there. Luxe is safe for little woollies and pretty dresses alike. And so thrifty, you'll want to use it for all baby things. And now, here's Mr. DeMille with our stars. Our stars, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Young, and John Hodiak come to the footlights for their curtain calls. And all three of you deserve a bouquet for tonight's performance. Thank you, CB. There's only one thing that bothers me about tonight's play, CB. What's that, Bob? Well, I understood that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was just a myth. Well, you wouldn't expect the cow to be a myth there, would you? Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Oh, John. I mean, that business about the cow kicking over the lantern. That's an exploded theory. It certainly exploded with a bang. So did that gag. Yes. You mean, Bob, that the cow's a lot of bull? You two? Well, if you're going to cross off Mrs. O'Leary's cow, who did start that fire, Bob? Well, don't look at me. Well, maybe they rub two boy scouts together. What's your theory about the fire, Dorothy? Well, all I know about fires is the one I had in my dressing room the other day. The firemen were there six hours. Six hours to put out a fire in your dressing room? No. One hour to put out the fire. Five hours to put out the firemen. Speaking of dressing rooms, Daddy, I understand Paramount has just released your new technicolor picture, Rainbow Island. That's right, CB. But a more important bit of news right now is what you're going to have for your 10th anniversary next Monday night. Yes. What did you pick for next week, CB? Well, Bob, as you know, I didn't do the picking myself. Thousands of listeners sent us their suggestions from all parts of the country. From those suggestions, we're going to pick many plays and stars for our 10th anniversary season. And the one we have for Monday night is especially appropriate. It's the first play ever presented on the Lux Radio Theatre, a drama that has touched the hearts of millions of our listeners. Seventh Heaven, with two stars requested so often in your letters. Jennifer Jones and Van Johnson, one of the great love stories of our time. Seventh Heaven is laid in wartime Paris, a city that once again symbolizes hope and love and freedom to all the peoples of the earth. It sounds like a wonderful birthday present, CB. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. You certainly kept the home fires burning tonight. Our sponsors, the makers of Lux Flakes, joined me in inviting you to be with us again next Monday night. When the Lux Radio Theatre presents Van Johnson, Jennifer Jones and Jean Herschel in Seventh Heaven, with Billy Gilbert. This is Cecil Bader Merrill saying good night to you from Hollywood. And now a reminder from Uncle Sam. Christmas packages for overseas must be mailed this week, before October 15th, to ensure delivery by Christmas Day. Be sure to wrap securely and address cleanly. Robert Young appears through the courtesy of Metro Golden Mayor and is currently appearing in Canterville Ghost. John Hodiak will soon be seen in Metro Golden Mayor's marriage as a private affair. Third in tonight's play, where Cy Kendall is Warner, Janet Scott is Molly, Ruby Danvige is Hattie, and Tom Holland is Bob. Our music was directed by Louis Silver. This program is broadcast to our fighting forces overseas through cooperation with the Armed Forces Radio Service. And this is your announcer, John N. Kennedy, reminding you to tune in again next Monday night to hear Seventh Heaven, with Jennifer Jones, Van Johnson, Jean Herschel and Billy Gilbert. Fry. Brand for cake and pie. Fry. Every time you fry. Fry. It's the shortening by. Yes, ma'am, new spry cakes are lighter, better tasting. Fry pastry is so tender and flaky. Fry-fried foods are crispier, so digestible. So be a better cook. Bake and fry with spry. Be sure to listen in next Monday night to the Lux Radio Theatre presentation of Seventh Heaven, with Van Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Jean Herschel and Billy Gilbert. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


What do Extinction Rebellion and Hollywood superheroes have in common? They both uncritically preserve the bureaucratic status quo by breaking the rules of everyday conduct. The problem of reading so many books is that sometimes I can't remember where an idea came from. It's like having a word on the tip of your tongue and not being able to say it. A few days ago I needed to explain why superhero films are ideologically statist and I couldn't remember the source. Just now a random comment made me remember. David Graber's The Utopia of Rules. Published in 2015, The Utopia of Rules is a book about bureaucracy, how bureaucracy, not politics, is a true organised force in modern society, and why the basis of state bureaucracy is a regularisation of force and violence. As Graber says, This essay is not just about bureaucracy, it's primarily about violence. What I would like to argue is that situations created by violence invariably tend to create the kinds of willful blindness that we normally associate with bureaucratic procedures.  This approach, I think, has the potential to tell us a great deal about both how bureaucracy has come to pervade every aspect of our lives and why we don't notice it. Graber's idea of bureaucracy being invisible, something that we are accustomed to, not only hides, it regularises the violence inherent in the system. Bureaucracy represents a means of power to facelessly enforce order, by making people do things to one another that, without the justification of bureaucratic rules, would ordinarily appear callous or inhuman. As in Graber's beautiful one-liner, police are bureaucrats with weapons. Written as a collection of essays, the book outlines why bureaucracy is a force or power which operates above politics, or even capitalism, and so acts to reinforce the ills of society, as well as frustrating any efforts to change those rules, as Graber says. One thing that the Global Justice Movement taught us is that politics is, indeed, ultimately about value, but also that those creating vast bureaucratic systems will almost never admit what their values really are. They will, like the Robert Barron's at the turn of the last century, insist that they are acting in the name of efficiency or rationality, but in fact this language always turns out to be intentionally vague, even nonsensical. Without understanding how bureaucracy, as an impersonal force, works, it is not possible to seriously challenge the functioning of that system. The rules-based global order is powerful because of the way those rules frustrate change, and to hack that system it's necessary to reveal the truth of those rules in order to subvert them, as Graber says. A critique of bureaucracy fit for the times would have to show how all these trends – financialisation, violence, technology, the fusion of public and private – knit together into a single, self-sustaining web. The process of financialisation has meant that an ever-increasing proportion of corporate profits come in the form of rent extraction of one sort or another, since it is ultimately a little more than legalised extortion. It is accompanied by the ever-increasing accumulation of rules and regulations. Indeed, they become so omnipresent that we no longer realise we're being threatened since we cannot imagine what it would be like not to be. Graber explains that one of the reasons the movements fail, not just progressive movements but even the neoliberal lobbyists trying to shrink the state, is that they tinker with the mechanisms of bureaucracy without really changing it, leading to more elaborate and complex rules that frustrate the intent of reform. As Graber says about the situationists called to be realistic, demand the impossible. Why do movements challenging such structures often end up creating bureaucracies instead? Normally they do so as a kind of compromise. One must be realistic and not demand too much, but this raises another question. When we speak of being realistic, exactly what reality is it we are referring to? This is a trap that allegedly radical movements fall into. For example, Extinction Rebellion. Rather than challenge the iniquities of the system, they want to preserve it, but without the existential threat of climate change. By seeking to stop climate change, without dealing with the structural inequalities which are the basis of the Western lifestyle, they cannot change the basis of how the economy damages the climate. This is where superheroes come in. As Graber says, The heroes are purely reactionary. By this I mean reactionary in the literal sense. They simply react to things. They have no projects of their own. In fact superheroes seem almost utterly lacking in imagination. The villains in contrast are relentlessly creative. They are full of plans and projects and ideas. As Graber points out, heroic societies, which is what Western cultures have followed since Ancient Greece and Rome are based upon stories. The problem is, those hyper-individualistic stories of the hero's role isolates their individual actions from that collective superstructure of bureaucracy. The hero only fights the actions of the villain, and so cannot change the nature of the system which gave rise to that villain. The Utopia of Rules expresses some profound ideas about how people strive to make change, and how easily those actions can be negated by bureaucratic rules. We cannot change the system without overturning its bureaucracy, and we can't overturn that bureaucracy without fundamentally redefining our identity and relationships to society. In that sense, reason demands that we seek the seemingly impossible. Some afterthoughts on the Utopia of Rules. Fundamentally, I'm a geek. I started out with an interest in electronics and engineering and then progressed to computers. Later, when I took up activism, I found that the functional of council departments or public inquiries was no different to understanding the operation of an engine, a radio or computer code. All you had to do was understand the general principle of how the bureaucracy worked in that context, and it was possible to create chaos no matter what the issue under discussion. Too often people don't realise that the system is so complex that the people charged with administering it don't understand the rules, and more importantly, their contradictions. Within that misunderstanding exists a potential for subversion. If you take the time to research the bureaucracy and then think creatively about how those rules can be bent or subverted, it's possible to make the system battle itself. I think that's why I like the Utopia of Rules. It reflects somewhat I discovered about how governments worked in the 1980s and later corporations and national campaign groups. Functionally, there's not a lot of difference between the two. More importantly, Graber makes a distinction between falling into the trap of working within the system, where bureaucracy will actively frustrate course of change, and creatively finding ways to, in Sorolinsky's words, push the system beyond his experience and exploit its failure. The first work of Graber's that I read was Fragments of An Anarchist Anthropology, published in 2004. He wrote that work in the wake of Seattle, but before his involvement in the Occupy movement. I think one of the really interesting ideas expressed there, equally relevant to how we subvert bureaucracy, was counter power. The capacity for people to imagine a world without the problem they perceive and then identify the necessary steps or mechanisms required to realise that. And of course, if you want to create a different kind of world, it has to be something we can hold in our minds first, because we need to model it in our mind in order to physically create it in the real world. I see the Utopia of Rules as the extension to what Graber began in Fragments of An Anarchist Anthropology. I was involved with the Seattle protests, where for the first time, the public emerged as a unified force to challenge the rules-based global order. When the opposition was closed down under the pretense of fighting a war on terror, it came as no surprise that the inherent violence of that system created even greater levels of self-justifying inhuman action, from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib to the persecution of Julian Assange, and that those practices would then be regularised for deployment across civil society, and in fact, from drone strikes to greater public surveillance, those methods are still being intensified today even though that war has, allegedly, ended. What I think is more important than any historical context though is for people to read this book and then observe and understand why movements fail. If we try to change one aspect of society but keep everything else the same, as so much liberal, middle-class, English activism is wont to do, then it should come as no surprise that little success comes of that. I often use distinction and rebellion as an example here. Their method of throwing themselves into the willing arms of the police, the courts and the prison system unsurprisingly causes little distress to the state, while causing maximum annoyance to the general public. The alternative, actually creating the types of future social structures that can operate without fossil fuels, because they operate outside of the economic and legal structures created by a system dependent upon fossil fuels, doesn't seem to grab extinction and rebellion's imagination. Even Martin Luther King understood this, as expressed in his letter from Birmingham Jail. I must confess that over the past few years I've been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I've almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's greatest stumbling block in his stride towards freedom is not the white citizens' counsellor or the Klu Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice. Compare that with Graeber's point about superheroes. In fact superheroes seem almost utterly lacking in imagination. Bruce Wayne, with all the money in the world, can't seem to think of anything to do with it other than to design even more high-tech weaponry and indulge in the occasional act of charity. In the same way it never seems to occur to Superman that he could easily end world hunger or carve free magic cities out of mountains. Almost never do superheroes make, create or build anything. If we really want to change the world, then Graeber would have us look to the role of the villain, not the superhero. In every Hollywood film, as ironically expressed in that famous awful hacker flick, Swordfish, the audience love happy endings, the bad guy can't win, bureaucracy cannot tolerate anyone who will not submit to his rules. What we have to do is move beyond the false dichotomies of the bureaucratic regime. The tool we used to do that is not reform, it is the use of our imagination to tell a different story about ourselves and then working to make that story come true, irrespective of what the bureaucracy dictates. Asking the bureaucracy to change itself is like asking a tiger to be a house-trained pussycat. It cannot change its fundamentally violent or oppressive nature. We can't reform the rules of bureaucracy, we have to render those rules irrelevant to the conduct of our daily lives. On that note, I'll end with Graeber's quote from the Crime Think Collective, which itself echoes the ideas of Albert Camus. We must make our freedom by cutting holes in the fabric of this reality, by forging new realities which will, in turn, fashion us. Putting yourself in new situations constantly is the only way to ensure that you make your decisions unencumbered by the inertia of habit, custom, law, or prejudice, and it is up to you to create these situations. Freedom only exists in the moment of revolution, and those moments are not as rare as you think. Change, revolutionary change, is going on constantly and everywhere, and everyone plays a part in it consciously or not. What is this but an elegant statement of the logic of direct action? The defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free.