[Orva]

> .. you can't ignore the impact of the tremendously acrimonious culture we have, steeped in animosity between the races and between different socioeconomic classes.

That is actually symptom of the problem, not the cause. It's not too long time ago when Finland had one of the bloodiest civil wars in European history[1], but still country was made enough unified to survive during WW2[2][3] and of course build 'nanny state' we have today.

Only reason that was possible was that big differences between classes was seemed as primary problem, caused by the system, instead of thinking it was caused by external forces which cannot really be affected. Maybe biggest success in this front was to ban private schools for kids and provide good basic education for everyone. Take note that all of the kids went to same schools, so kids from both factions of civil war shared classrooms, meals, etc.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War