But then the unthinkable happens and we are derailed from the given norms. The very traditions that have bonded us -- as individuals, families and extended families, as clans and tribes, and as sects and religious groups -- into a coherent society are without warning strained, questioned, and tested.

But, to the surprise of many the world as we know it does NOT end. Indeed, life goes on much as before. And sometimes, it even improves.

Apply these ideas to Lebanon today. The country seems almost stalemated in a political impasse. The Lebanese have lingered almost a month without a sitting president. Unable to reach a consensus when the already over-extended mandate of President Emile Lahoud ended Nov. 23, political leaders, party chiefs, and religious bigwigs have been treading water ever since.

And yet the country has somehow managed to survive without a president.

Indeed, the world did not stop turning as some people thought it would when the constitutional void widened up, while political parties continued bickering over who they would select to elect. Yes, that's the way they run elections in Lebanon. They first select a candidate everyone will agree with, and then they vote him into office.

Life after Lahoud left the presidential palace in Baabda went on much as before. The sky did not fall down on the heads of the Lebanese. Business went on as usual. Banks opened and financial transactions continued to take place. Millions of dollars, and even larger amounts in other currencies, continued to be exchanged. Passenger planes took off and landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport more or less on time. And if Lebanon had trains, they too, would have continued to run more or less on time.

Lebanon without a president is far from falling into a state of anarchy. Moreover, it demonstrates that in a modern structured society -- even one as fragmented as Lebanon's -- it takes more than a presidential void to fall into total anarchy; even when outside forces repeatedly try to destabilize the country.

It is these forces that continue to whittle away at the March 14 Coalition parliamentary majority. The real anarchists are assassinating a politician here by car bomb, another one there months later. But it is worth reminding those who aspire to bring chaos to Lebanon that history shows that anarchists usually end up destroying their own ideals.