Noise and Order

The Lebanese modus operandi is intrinsically chaotic. Is this a good or a bad thing?

In an article entitled “In praise of cacophony”, Micheal Young had this to say on the Lebanese Media:

Lebanese media comes out looking relatively free. The paradox, however, is that this is often the result of an abnormality: media outlets are private and mostly represent contending political or other interests, and from that cacophony information emerges that would not in a more centralized, government-controlled media environment.

I would like to build on that article: As any Lebanese knows, the cacophony he mentions acts a checks-and-balances system not only to the media, but to all aspects of Lebanese life.

When I was driving in Tripoli one day, I wanted to make a U-Turn, but I had two problems: a “No U-turn” sign and a police officer standing right under that sign. But in total disregard to the police officer, the cars in front of me went ahead and made that U-Turn. The police officer wasn’t bothered at all. In fact he helped us by stopping the other cars.

When my friend Kelly, a Canadian, visited me in Lebanon, she remarked: It’s funny how things work in this country, there seems to be an unwritten agreement between drivers that they can all drive chaotically, but somehow, you can sense an order in the chaos.

Why are we like that? Why are police officers very lenient? Why are our security officers and soldiers very nice with us (The amn 3am personnel in the airport for instance are notorious for their kindness, sir, madam, please, thank you, sorry. Even our armed forces are, unlike the repulsive syrians, chummy)

The answer is simple. It’s for the same reasons that Micheal Young mentions.
Because of our system of patronage in Lebanon, security officers would not bully someone who drives a nice car because it could cost him his job. As the case of Wafik Jezzini, the official in the interior ministry who refuses to be disciplined by his boss (with big people protecting his back), shows, Lebanon is a chaotic places that derives its order from that very chaos.

The never ending debate remains though: Is the chaos a force for creativity, or a sign of backwardness?