"Our so-called conservatives, who have cut all ties to their own intellectual moorings, now espouse policies and personalities that would get them laughed out of Periclean Athens. The few conservatives still able to hold up one end of a Socratic dialogue are those in the ostracized libertarian wing -- interestingly enough, a group with a disproportionately high representation among fans of speculative fiction.
"The less politicized majority, who perhaps would like to draw inspiration from this story without glossing over the crazy and defective aspects of Spartan society, have turned, in droves, to a film from the alternative cultural universe of fantasy and science fiction. Styled and informed by pulp novels, comic books, video games and Asian martial arts flicks, science fiction eats this kind of material up, and expresses it in ways that look impossibly weird to people who aren't used to it.
"Lack of critical respect means nothing to sci-fi's creators and fans. They made peace with their own dorkiness long ago."
- Neal Stephenson, from a review of the film "300". I suspect the "sci-fi" is from the sub-editor not Stephenson.
