Andrew Smith is worried about “plundering the moon.”

It’s a theme that I’ve discussed (and shot down) in the past. And read the comments section in his Guardian piece–it’s chock full of anthrophobic moon battery.

Wretchard comments:

Today, for the first time in human history, man can look forward to spreading into truly virgin territory. To go where no man has ever gone before; and consequently where no man ever need be displaced from his abode. The words “we come in peace for all mankind” may have fallen unheard upon the lunar rocks. But the words still have meaning to a mankind trapped not only upon Earth but within his history. If Marxism was a project to bring History to an end in the near future, Environmentalism is an attempt to freeze History in the distant past. Not for the benefit of mankind, nor even when you come to think of it, for Nature — unless man is excluded from the account — but for the sake of having the power to end history on their terms.

They will not succeed and man will go on. No less than the trees and stars we have a right to be here.

Speaking of Marx, here’s an interesting theory on how he came up with such an inhuman philosophy:

Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East Anglia, believes the revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine sweat glands — found mainly in the armpits and groin — become blocked and inflamed.

“In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem,” said Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of Dermatology.

“This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing.”

Of course, it doesn’t explain why so many less dermatologically challenged people bought (and continue to buy) into it.

[Via Thomas James, who has some additional thoughts]