“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” – Dan Koon
Rathbun has collected unto himself some very weird characters. Common to each, in part or in full, it narrows down to be Jokers & Degraders, criminals, deserters and without question NCGers. If you look into their background, you will find each were NCG (no-case-gain). It is a fascinating collection of squirrels to end all squirrel groups. Though they’ll debate that to the end of time, I assure you they’ll concur that they are Jokers & Degraders.
Take for instance, this “Joe Howard” character. Though he is a valence shifter, he also goes by the name of Dan Koon. He’s a Joker and Degrader and he’s very proud of it. He’s been the joker in the deck for many of innocent people who he backstabbed. He’s also proud of that too. When he’s dropped kicked someone, he’ll state “a sucker is born every second.”
Koon is known on the Net as Mr. Psych (as he was a Psychology major in college and he consults like a psych in his chit-chat) or Dr. Joker because he chatters with his fellow dirty old J&Ders on and on and on. It’s one of those “get a life for gawd’s sake” retorts. Koon, being a failed and wannabe writer, just keeps on whipping off J&D. He’s a laid back Mr. Insouciance–whistling past the graveyard type, all the while denigrating anyone and everyone he can lay his eyes on.
I saw a posting by his ex-wife, who he deserted when he ran off with some blonde floozy and thief which I feel is pertinent to who this squirrel is. I quote it in part:
“Koon was a known Joker and Degrader in kindergarten. Koon was a joker and degrader of Scientology from the beginning and remained that way the entire time I knew him. In 1973, as Qual Sec of a Scientology mission, he posted a sign above the Qual entry stating, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” This is but one example of his typical behavior. And he tries to say he is not anti-LRH and anti-Scientology? Oh yes he is. Always has been. Constantly undermining. He may profess he was not undermining Scientology, but that was and is directly his target. From our earliest days in the Sea Org (1977) he was hazing other staff, mimicking and making fun of petty foibles or oddnesses with them. That to him was fun. It certainly is not fun to the recipient. He made up J&D names for all of the auditors in Qual – making fun of them. How many times I got furious with him for his J&D, I don’t know, but it went on for a full 30 years of our association.
“The 2D was a real target of his J&D and his total disregard for common decency and any respect for the feelings of others was shocking. Before he was in Scientology, he was in pornography! It was a normal activity to him. At the same time, he was married to his first wife and overtly abandoned her to start up a relationship with others. He once told me that his first marriage meant nothing to him, that it was just ‘practice.’ Telling me, with many laughs, how much he upset his first wife on their wedding day by ignoring her and going to watch sports on TV. Nattering about her and how he couldn’t stand the way she would stand in front of the closet and say she had nothing to wear (so what?) and other natter, natter, natter. (Always natter, natter, natter, criticize, criticize, criticize.) He certainly trashed her life by destroying that marriage with absolutely no responsibility or remorse for what he was doing and how much he hurt her. And she was a hell of a nice girl. Never did anything to him to deserve treatment like that. Not much about her one could natter about. He was just an uncaring and unfeeling asshole. To my regret, he did the same thing to me.
“Before I was married to him, I went out on a date with another man (he note it was Dan who was the one who was married, not me) and he threw me down and struck me physically. A scary experience, having never been hit by a man before or since and I regret the day I met Dan Koon.
“But hell, he later did the same thing to me as he did to his first wife – in 2003, he started up a relationship with a blond floozy (a confessed thief, kleptomaniac and exhibitionist who used to press her bare breasts up against the windows at night in LA high-rises to expose herself to anyone who would look). They carried on an illicit, secret and slimy 2D relationship, both of them lying through their teeth the whole while. They would meet after hours outside our apartment, telling me they were ‘working.’ They were keeping it secret from everyone.
“By the way, she was married too. What did he care? Morals? He trashed morals and ethics. And then, in Dec 2003, after 26 years of marriage, he walked out on me. Went to the front door, said he was going Christmas shopping, lying to my face, and deserted me without even a goodbye. A real coward. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen a more cowardly act. I saw the cringing, slimy cowardly look, the slinking out the door, the patheticness of someone who is so weak and afraid that they cannot confront telling the truth or facing up to what they are doing. It was sick.
“10 years earlier than that, while I was away on mission, he was engaging in another covert 2D relationship with a young married woman. When I returned, he announced to me that he wanted to have a 2D with her now. It was really non-stop with this guy, that’s for sure. Always only thinking of himself. And thinking the world of himself at that. He’s a creep, truth be told. And the above is the truth. Anyone who trusts him is putting their lives at risk. And that is no exaggeration.
“Fool as I was, he made my life a misery for years. If it wasn’t the out-2D, it was his constant sub-apathy complaining about things – never doing anything about it mind you, never acting in any constructive way to make things better. No, that’s not the way of a coward. He wanted others weakened and smaller and cowed. He was hypercritical of the Church, orgs, his friends, dogs and cats and the world at large. He gives a new meaning to ‘Joker and Degrader.’ He will joke and degrade anyone and anything.
“When I first met him, he preached anarchy to me. As he was a joking character, I never took him seriously. He was so proud to tell me about setting off a bomb in a restaurant when he was a young man. How he ran naked through the University of Berkeley campus while a student there. And other similar crimes.
“He was constantly nattering to me and others, undermining the group, in the slimy and underhanded and covert way of a subversive. Hey! There are standard ways to air complaints and do something to set things right that you don’t like and he used none of them. Only a steady, unrelenting, undermine and stream of natter and complaints. Check your LRH policy on spinning malcontents.
“Looking back, I see where he was really at. Fighting some long past enemies that no one else can see, that’s for sure. Never satisfied, never pleased. No matter what was done for him. As fits the character of a coward (and a psycho) he would turn on those who most helped him. While he can complain bitterly about the Chairman of the Board, I was there throughout their long relationship and I saw how Mr. Miscavige treated Dan. Like a friend. I have never seen any man flow so much patience and power to another individual and then have that person just not flow it back. What Dan did instead was target COB for his own inability to get a vital project done, while crowing loudly in complaint that he couldn’t get anything done. Always placing blame elsewhere. And despite all, was given another chance and another chance and another chance.
“Well, LRH was not far off in 1984 when he sighted this asshole by name as a stalled case due to having an overabundance of black PR and evil purposes. Too bad he had so many overts he couldn’t even gain from the tech LRH developed to handle that very condition.
“The most telling fact is that he was incapable of making case gain himself. And this, by his own statement over many years. He was terrified of his case. Was not able to make any change under processing and of course he did what he knew he did best—joke and degrade about it and those trying to help him.
“The world should know. Yes, he can appear charming; he can appear to be a nice guy but look again. And look with the Chart of Human Evaluation in hand—he’s as 1.1 as there ever was one. And being a liar, he is inevitably a coward and being a coward he is inevitably a liar. He’s one and the same. He’s Mr. Joe Coward!”— Sue (ex-Koon)
The next time you, as an executive, wonder why you are working so hard, look for the joker in the deck.
Humor is one thing. Destroyed orgs and human beings are quite something else.
It is our business to get the show on the road and get the job done. – LRH, HCO Policy Letter of 5 February 1977 Jokers and Degraders
Mark "Marty" Rathbun 