This, to me, is the crux of the zealotry for Lisp and its variants. A high level language, with functions as first class citizens, that can not only run on mini

This, to me, is the crux of the zealotry for Lisp and its variants. A high level language, with functions as first class citizens, that can not only run on minimal hardware but be programmed on minimal hardware in less than 100-1000 lines of C code. The other arguments, while valid, for side-effect isolation or for the "brain bending" nature of functional languages pales in comparison to the above reason. In my opinion, Javascript pretty much took the best parts of this philosophy (scriptable/run-time languages, first class functions, etc.) without the more cumbersome aspects to create a happy compromise between a functional and imperative programming language. I do wonder if the newer generation of programmers has the same reverence for Lisp and its variants as the last generation.