Re: Congrats

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 3:05 PM, Marsh, Charles <marsh@ku.edu> wrote:

Hey, Barrett:

Sorry to be so slow.... I've been in research hibernation. Bad timing on my part, given all that's been going on with you.

You would have been hugely entertained by my trying to explain Anonymous to Kris, particularly since at best I have about .001 percent of a distorted media image.

I'm all for civil disobedience, especially when government and big business play dirty, even by their standards. But please, please at least be careful. Remember Aristotle's take on courage (and other virtues) -- it's some kind of balance between extremes of excess and deficiency. He wrote that true courage certainly isn't cowardice (an extreme of deficiency) -- but neither is it an extreme of excess, of recklessness, of not protecting yourself to live to fight another day. I hope you're protecting yourself so that you're not just throwing away all the gifts you have.

Even as a kid, you were usually at least two steps ahead of everyone else -- one of the many reasons I always wanted to hang out with you -- so I don't know how serious you are about the heroin, etc. But I have too many empty-shell friends who were so sure that they could handle it -- though, to be honest, that was more cocaine than anything else. I won't lecture, but I hope, again, you're being careful -- not in the trite sense of that word but in the sense of truly caring for yourself. I'm really, really proud of you. You've overcome so much and have gone so far that I hope you won't let something like that hold you back or pull you down.

Anyway, you're probably two steps ahead, as usual -- but, if not, do think about that Aristotle thing. Don't needlessly or easily give anyone the means of taking you down.

I love you, and I'm proud of you -- though if you ever end up like P.J. O'Rourke (though I guess he's not through), I may revise the proud part. I just learned of his connections to the Kochs.

Chuck

Charles Marsh
William Allen White Foundation Professor

School of Journalism and Mass Communications
University of Kansas
1435 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045-7575
marsh@ku.edu
785-864-7642 (voice)
785-864-5318 (fax)

________________________________
From: Barrett Brown [barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 11:07 AM
To: Marsh, Charles
Subject: Congrats

I hear you're a full-on academic. I always considered you one; not sure what took so long but then I'm not sure how colleges work, really. Hope all is well.

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302