Well I’m in Brittany just now and it doesn’t seem chaotic, in spite of being a mix of French and Celtic cultures.
It's debateable how multicultural Brittany really is, because Breton as a language is almost dead.
Language barriers usually are a symptom of true divisions in culture (true divisions like views on morality, law, family structure, spiritual truth, social contracts, individual and collective purpose, etc). Because walls in communication prevent the free exchange and flow of ideas which lead to homogenization of two cultures into one (either by both cultures being changed, or by one culture integrating itself with another).
Conversely, language integration between two people groups is usually a sign that they have also integrated in other significant ways so that the chance of serious conflict is greatly reduced.
A lot of people mistakenly think multiculturalism is defined by relatively meaningless surface level trappings like "we eat this dish" or "we celebrate this festival once a year" or "we practice this particular style of music occasionally".
No, real culture deals with beliefs about how family and society ought to structure itself and how individuals ought to behave. And you usually can't have significant disagreements about these things without it leading to conflict in society.
Sometimes you can avoid conflict by segregating the two communities apart so that they can both live their conflicting livestyles side by side. But this almost always results in a lack of shared identity, which means there is no sense of family or national bond together. Which is why a lot of times historically when a nation comes under stress it ends up being divided into many smaller nations along differing cultural lines. That shows that they didn't have strong enough cultural bonds with the other areas to see them as part of their family and nation.
Would you say Brittany has significant differences with the rest of France with regards to the important issues of society and culture? I'd suspect not as much as you think.
Do they even have enough sense of being culturally separate from France that they would welcome being given the chance for independence from France? I don't know, but I suspect if so it's not pronounced enough to result in a significant push for it. Especially compared with other people groups and regions around Europe who are in a much more severe cultural clash where one group is actively seeking independence from the others, or at least has a history of trying to do so.
You'll see this truth played out in just about any example around the world historically.
Where you see two significantly different cultures living together you often have conflict.
And when you see a reduction in conflict it's because integration has taken place.
Or, in the case where overt conflict is avoided, you end up with segregated cultures that are allowed to practice their significant differences but still have some kind of shared agreement with the other groups. But this ultimately isn't historically a long lasting recipe for stability. Because ultimately when stress comes to the collective the individual parts don't have a sense of shared culture and bonding that holds them together. Instead they are more likely to fracture into their individual parts. The only way they could come together in unity under the pressure is if they made the choice that the benefits of solidarity are more important to them than cultural protection, so they are willing to integrate in order to obtain that unity. You do see examples of this happening historically to varying degrees. But then you're really just talking about a process of integration to erase cultural divisions. And if two people groups don't want to undergo that process in order to achieve greater unity then historically they are vulnerable to simply splitting apart.
Quebec is a more modern example were they are constantly wishing they could break away from the rest of Canada. They never fully integrated culturally with the rest of Canada. That's part of why they so jealously guard their language. To guard ones language is an essential part of guard ones cultural identity which makes them set apart from others.
If you no longer care about guarding the supremacy of your language then it's likely a good sign you don't care that much about guarding your culture from outside influence and change.
The reverse is also true when US citizens make a big deal about retaining english as the national language and not allowing our country to become bi-lingual. It's really an effort to preserve the cultural unity we enjoy, to not let that become fractured over time.
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