You have a point; your basic statement is something I agree with. However, it depends on what variant of Lisp. Common Lisp, it's true, does have a lot of remnan

You have a point; your basic statement is something I agree with. However, it depends on what variant of Lisp. Common Lisp, it's true, does have a lot of remnants from the past which make it ugly. (After all, why should I have to say 'aref' when it would be so much nicer just to say [] for array references...) However, other Lisps exist. Take a look at Scheme or Clojure. Scheme is prettier, and Clojure more practical. (On a side note: these different variants of Lisp certainly don't help create one "Lisp community".)