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Dan Mage

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I was born in NYC in 1959. I grew up in the DC area, the product of suburbia and liberal parents with doctoral-level educations. I dropped out of the public school system in eighth grade, and from all schooling by the age of 16. My life rapidly became a typical story of downwardly mobile suburban youth in the late 70s and early 80s. I worked for low wages, hung around the fringes of various 60s-relic left-anarchist factions, drank and used drugs as much as possible and had sex with pretty much anyone who was available. One day, early in the fall of 1984, at an outdoor concert on the Monument Grounds in DC, a couple of undercover cops jumped out of a bush at me while I was smoking some cannabis with a few people I'd just met. I pulled a knife; for some reason they didn't shoot me, and when I saw the badges and guns, I dropped the blade. Charged with APDW (Assault on Police Officers with a Deadly Weapon), I feared that I would be going to prison for a really long time (I would be, but not for this case). I had the good fortune of entering my plea before the Hon. Rufus King, a liberal judge now retired and active in efforts to reform the criminal justice system. After a conviction for one count of misdemeanor assault, and receiving 2 years of Federal probation, I moved to Colorado, was accepted to Naropa University in Boulder (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) got married, had a kid, dropped out again, got divorced, and returned to my pattern of downward mobility and anti-social behavior. I was arrested and sentenced to the Colorado Department of Corrections on multiple drug and robbery convictions in 1995, served over seven years in prison, and five on parole. I discharged my parole on July 1st of 2008 and moved back to the east coast, meanwhile having married a woman I met in DC in 1983. I wrote for the now defunct Associated Content and Helium, and published one article with Reason (online) I currently have several works in progress, and recently completed a prison memoir, which I am now editing for publication. My political views are hard-line left-libertarian, and I am dedicated to the idea of ending the new prohibition and the ridiculous "War on Drugs," as I have seen its result, the American Gulag from the inside, and consider it to be an ongoing crime against humanity.

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14 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 118 Comments, 4 Diaries, 1 Series, 0 Polls

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Anais and Billy Yeager, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 28, 2011
Revolution for the Freedom of the Mind "Jesus of Malibu" an Independent Film Independent filmmakers Anais and William Yeager have resurrected and redefined "Revolution" through the production of "Jesus of Malibu" a bold and uncompromising call to action, for all free thinkers.
starving children, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 5, 2011
People as Livestock: The Cult of Fundamentalist Materialism and the Cheapening Life Even as class struggle escalates, the areas of contention remain within the boundaries set by the cult of "Fundamentalist Materialism." The majority of demands seem to have the goal of increased comfort in oppression, while all but ignoring the fate of humans whose lives are entirely without a market value.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 26, 2012
Why "Hard Drug" Users and Addicts Commit Suicide: A Declaration from the "Other One Percent" Those who dare say that users and addicts of the dreaded group of chemicals know collectively as "hard drugs" have baseline human rights, including the right to live and die as they choose are considered to be extremists. Yet, those who build fortunes and political careers on the manufacture of corpses, and the slow destruction of lives by exploitation are honored. Still, some need ask why we who use so readily invite death.
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 27, 2012
The Politics of Psychiatric Assessments To arrive at a diagnosis as defined by the DSM-IV, the clinician is required to make personal judgments based on vague and entirely subjective criteria. A patient's diagnosis is primarily a measure of the clinician's reaction to the patient. What is "normal" "unusual" "bizarre" and "non-bizarre" is determined by the clinician's personal belief's and prejudices.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Tea Party and Fake Libertarians: Rebellion, Backlash or Death Spasms of a Hate Cult The legitimate discontent of some decent people merged in a prefab reactionary populist movement, and was diverted into a pseudo-libertarian ideological muck pit. They are Witch Hunter, Queer Bashers and Cross Burners. They are doomed, but they can still do a lot of damage.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Rethinking Rand: "Going Galt" on The 1% Ayn Rand is blindly worshiped by some, reviled and despised by others, and truly understood by very few. When one removes her obsession with crass materialism and veneration of industrial capitalism by, one is left with the essential elements of her philosophy. This philosophy is a double edged sword, and when taken on its own abstract merits, can be used by the underclass, as easily as by the bourgeoise and the "1%."
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 28, 2012
Needed, Now! A United Anti-Fascist Opposition Front -- No Wimps Need Apply There is no time left for sectarian ideological debates, name calling, and finger pointing among what remains of a fragmented opposition. All who still care for the idea of an open society must set aside their differences and work together to stop the complete absorption of the United States by global corporatism. The time is now; we can learn from history's lessons. the only thing more dangerous than dissent is silence.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 23, 2013
Enabling the Control Addicts: A Free High for the Greed Fiends The centralized, stratified and hierarchical "New World Order" is the logical and predictable result of control addicts feeding their habits. As with other addictions, there is never enough. The inverted class war, in which wealth and power is redistributed by means of coercion, from the bottom to the top is actually a case of addicts feeding their habits, and will not stop, until we refuse to "enable" them.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 21, 2013
Wilhelm Reich's Mass Psychology of Fascism Revisited Wilhelm Reich, Scientist, Genius, Madman, and "Fury on Earth"(-Myron Sharaf), knew too much. His death in federal prison, and the destruction of most of his work by the FDA, ensures that we will never know exactly how much he knew. But he exposed "The Scam" which is used to this day, stronger and more sophisticated than ever.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Industrial Psychology: The Evolution Of A Global Control System The stated goal of industrial psychologist Frederick Winslow Taylor was in essence the reduction of human beings into interchangeable and ultimately disposable, easily replaced machines. This is now the reality of working life for the overwhelming majority of people living under global corporatism.
Homeless Man in Denver, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Class War, but not Obama's: It's Time to Make Other Arrangements The corporate domination of of life in America and the Federal Government is nearly complete. Only a new "counter-culture," a counter-economic culture can break the corporate/governmental stranglehold on life's necessities.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 26, 2009
End Global Drug Prohibition The United States Government has no legitimate role in reducing the cultivation and production of illegal drugs in other countries, or in the dictation of drug policy the governments of other nations.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 28, 2013
Forget Politics and Cut the Control Lines: The Seven Abominations of Organized Coercion In my last two OEN publications, older piece that I felt the need to repeat in light of recent events, I dealt with the psychological aspects of the global cult of control. This piece deals with direct and physical control systems, which are all interconnected and interdependent, and share the commonality of directly violation the individuals's ownership of their own body, and attacking their very humanity.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 7, 2011
"Back to Work!" The Futility of Appeals to State and Capital Our appeals to institutions that have no interests in common with us are futile. Capital, The State, and Authoritarian Religion back the sacred institutions of modern slavery, with mind control, and always with force, up to and including the lethal, as needed. This is fascism, as defined by Mussolini, it's here, it's real, and we are running out of time.

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