responsibility of Big Tech, and I strug-
gle to find model companies to show
my students. Wiener compellingly il-
lustrates how Marlinspike’s pro-pri-
vacy efforts have grown out of anar-
chist and punk cultures. Situated in
the context of those fringe movements,
Marlinspike’s vision is intriguing as a
potential paradigm for mainstream pri-
vacy norms online. When accepting an
award in 2017, Marlinspike said that
we should celebrate technological
progress, and not the individuals who
brought it about. Wiener’s piece ex-
plains why, when it comes to subvert-
ing surveillance practices and making
the Internet a more ethical place, the
two cannot be separated.
Swati Srivastava
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Ind.Wiener mentions that the origins of
Marlinspike’s chosen surname are mys-
terious. Attentive readers of Hilary
Mantel’s historical novel “Wolf Hall”
know the name: Marlinspike is the
kitten born in the rooms of Cardinal
Wolsey, whom Thomas Cromwell,
the book’s hero, served as confidential
secretary. Cromwell brings the kitten
home and, holding it out to his son,
proclaims, “I am a giant, my name is
Marlinspike.”
Aviva Cantor
New York CityIs it possible that Wiener does not know
Tintin, the young reporter-adventurer
of comic-book fame, whose sidekick
Captain Haddock, through a series of
fortuitous events, ends up as the wealthy
owner of Marlinspike Hall? That’s our
first clue.
Mary Jane Mortimer
Boulder, Colo.THE CURATOR’S DILEMMA
Peter Schjeldahl provides a nuanced
look at the postponement of the artist
Philip Guston’s exhibition—which had
been scheduled to go up at four major
art museums—because of its depictions
of Klansmen (The Art World, Octo-
ber 19th). And yet this moment requires
more than a nostalgia for the days of
“tolerance for uncongenial expression.”
The problem is with discourse itself:
liberal values such as open debate and
artistic license have been short-circuited.
The clash with fascism is not a differ-
ence of opinion that can be hashed out
with mutual respect. Guston’s swastika
and Ku Klux Klan imagery meant some-
thing very different just four years ago,
before the election of Donald Trump,
who has abetted white supremacists.
Better not to show the paintings at all
than to give such people the opportu-
nity to pose before them for selfies.
Luke Jaeger
Northampton, Mass.
It pains me to take issue with Schjeldahl
and his subtle support for the institu-
tions that postponed the “Philip Gus-
ton Now” show. But it seems to me
that his analysis and, by extension, that
of the museum officials responsible for
the delay, mischaracterize the work:
Guston’s paintings are not so much a
condemnation of the Ku Klux Klan as
an indictment of white society for being
made of the same clay. Guston looked
in the mirror and said, We are all Klans-
men now. That is a message that white
élites, however liberal and cultured, will
always wish to run away from.
Sheridan Swinson
Leominster, England
1
MY NAME IS MARLINSPIKE
Anna Wiener’s Profile of Moxie Mar-
linspike, who founded Signal, the end-
to-end encrypted messaging service,
presents a rare example of ethical tech-
nology in the age of surveillance capi-
talism (“Privacy Settings,” October 26th).
I research and teach on the power and
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