Lebanon is a country characterised by the widest possible cultural diversity, and it would be immensely rich if it came to recognise itself as such. it could have set an example to the world by being the homeland of cultural syncretism and thereby providing a much needed and truly human symbol. We could have given a new meaning to human cohabitation and provided human society with a living example of a different kind of collectivity, an assembly of cultures rather than the Western assembly of individuals.