>And yes, spanish and belgians have "a" common culture, just
>as you and me have "a" common culture (I mean, we both
>listen to hip hop, for instance), because culture travels.
>But besides that, they have quite a few things to
>differentiate them, enough for me to say that they don't
>belong to the same culture.


just to clarify, i meant that there is a swiss nation even tho there isn't just one language in switzerland, just as there is a spanish nation tho they have more than one language, ditto belgium. even if you insist on dismissing the minority languages/ethnicities of france bc they do not constitute very many speakers, you can't do the same with catalan. it's no more incongruous for a radical basque to be part of europe than it is to be part of france, and in fact it may be less incongruous for him to be part of the same political unit as his basque brothers in spain.

we began with you saying, europe can't have a culture in common because it doesn't have a language in common. my point was that most nations in europe are already multilingual and multiethnic.



The number of people truly identifying
>themselves as only Basque, and not French, ie claiming
>independance, is actually very limited. The same can be said
>for Corses. And it's the two main, or to be exact, the two
>only regions claiming independance.


wasn't there a breton movement up to the 70's? and anyway, word on the polisci street is that the coming of europe will see stronger subnational articulations.




>>bc it wasn't just geography, or the experience of the
>>adjacent lands under the eastern orthodox church wouldnt
>>have been so different. and the adoption of ideas on
>>technology or democracy in the non-western world would have
>>also been different. the meiji reformation is unique.
>
>Hmmm...you lost me, here.


Europe had a cultural/intellectual heritage in common that permitted the seeding of ideas of the Renaissance/Enlightenment/Industrial Revolution with a speed that simply didn't happen in places which did not have the same heritage.


...


aside:
>Ha. This is very funny. You act as if languages like Langue
>d'Oil (!)

as an aside: what exactly is langue d'oil? and langue d'oc = occitane = provecale, correct? i thought i read somewhere that provencale and catalan were mutually comprehensible, how close are they?