Giving "reasons" why a language will be around a while is roughly somewhat comparable to giving "reasons" why a particular business or industry will last. These kinds of comparisons are a waste of mental energy.<p>Things like languages or businesses last (or do not) largely because of their interaction with their environment -- not because of (a) innate properties or (b) characteristics that we observe at this moment in time. A great language, like Python, deserves praise because of how useful it has been, but let's not get carried away and sanctify it.<p>Time will tell how long it lasts.<p>In the meanwhile, I like to use languages that help my productivity (for a particular problem) and don't help me shoot myself in the foot.