This change had a big impact, causing fast political shifts. It also changed how people in Europe lived and thought. It meant the end of the Cold War and led to countries that were once under Soviet control starting to choose their own way to freedom. New countries were formed, and old friendships were looked at again.

The changes in culture were huge. In Berlin and other places, there was a lot of sharing of art and ideas. Artists and musicians from Eastern Europe, who used to be limited in what they could do, now had chances to work with artists from the West. Berlin became a place full of different kinds of art. Theaters, galleries, and music venues showed new works that mixed Eastern and Western styles.

Writers and poets also started sharing stories that went beyond the old East-West boundaries. They wrote about what it was like to be separated and the good and bad parts of coming back together.

Fashion changed too. Designers mixed the simple style of Eastern fashion with the bright and creative style of the West. This created new fashion trends that told the story of these two styles coming together.

This time showed that even though politics can separate people, culture can bring them together. Culture helps people understand each other and connect. The fall of the Berlin Wall was important not just for politics but also for bringing different cultures together, showing how connected the world is.

In the book, Ruth tried to explain the Japanese people's mindset. She used the chrysanthemum, a flower, and the sword as symbols to show that Japanese can be both peaceful and fierce. She believed that they can be polite but also aggressive, they can be loyal but also betray, and they can be brave but also cautious.

Ruth noticed that Japanese society is very structured. Every person has a place in the society and they aim to fulfill their duty to their superiors like the emperor, their parents, or teachers.

She compared how Japanese and Western people think. For example, while Americans, influenced by Christian values, see on suicide as a sin, some Japanese view it as a way to clear their name if it done correctly.

One of the main points was that Japan is a "shame culture." This means that people in Japan often act based on what others can think of them. They affraid being judged or "losing face" in front of others.

However, Ruth's work had some flaws. She only looked at a certain period in Japan's history, the 1930s to the 1940s, and assumed it represented all of Japan's history. Also, she never visited Japan and didn't speak the language, so it's debated how accurate were her findings.

While “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” remains a seminal work, it has faced criticism over the years. Many modern scholars argue that the book offers a simplified and stereotyped view of Japanese culture.

While Benedict didn’t speak Japanese, she relied heavily on the narratives of Japanese Americans and others familiar with Japanese culture for her research. However, direct interaction with native Japanese people in their own setting might have provided a more accurate assessment.

Given the limited resources available and the urgency of the situation, her work was pioneering in providing insights into Japanese culture for a Western audience.

Culturologists believe that the cultural code isn’t a finite value. It is made up of the past cultural experience of a society, information is collected, twisted and packaged into the final cultural product, like in a DNA molecule

In simple words, a cultural code is mentally encoded information, a set of unique characteristics of a people that they inherited from their ancestors and allows them to identify a specific culture.

We unconsciously adopt habits, roles and patterns through traditions, customs, everyday life, etc. This is what distinguishes one people from another, and forms the self-identification of each individual person in a specific cultural environment.

“One of the unresolved problems of the twentieth century is that we only have a vague and biased idea of ​​what exactly makes Japan the country of the Japanese, the USA the country of the Americans, France the country of the French, and Russia the country of the Russians... The lack of this knowledge hinders countries to understand each other."- Ruth Benedict. Chrysanthemum and the sword.

Cultural intelligence, or CQ, is the ability of a person to understand people of a different culture and quickly adapt in a multinational environment.

And this is not only about the ability to communicate with foreigners. This concept implies a desire to understand a different mentality, customs and habits, some features of a particular people. People with a developed cultural intelligence adapt more easily in another country, quickly make friends. They respect other people's customs and traditions, readily accept it and feel at home everywhere.

We get to know ourselves and the world around us throughout our lives. It’s just that we don’t always fixate on the internal changes that are happening with us, and sometimes we stubbornly oppose them. What is rigid thinking, dogmatism, inflexibility? This is just about unwillingness to admit that you are changing all the time. For this reason, cultural intelligence is very important not only for the professional side of life, but also for development as a person. The more we know about a world that is different from ours, the more we can accept and understand. Our inner horizons are expanding, and as a result, interest in life and in ourselves remains.

The theory was proposed by American sociologists James Wilson and George Kelling. In 1982, they published in «The Atlantic Monthly» an article «Broken Windows» where they described how ignoring petty crime affects the overall crime rate:

“Social psychologists and police officers tend to believe that if a window is broken in a building and not repaired, other windows will be broken soon. This is true for both prosperous and disadvantaged areas.’’

In 1969, psychologist Philip Zimbardo did an experiment. He parked two cars without license plates and with raised hoods, one in the Bronx, a disadvantaged area of New York, the other in the quieter Palo Alto. Literally ten minutes after Zimbardo left the car in the Bronx, locals began to take everything of value from it, and then smashed windows and teared upholstery. In Palo Alto, the car sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo broke part of it with a sledgehammer - and soon passersby joined him. In a few hours, the car was simply destroyed.

The broken windows theory suggests that the less attention society pays to petty crime, the more it becomes. People do them based on the logic “If others can, then why can’t I?” Gradually, the bar is lowered, and the crimes become more serious.

The video on youtube captures the moment when Ceausescu begin a long phrase: “I want to thank all the initiators and organizers of this greatest event for Bucharest, considering it as ...” - then cuts off and freezes with a shocked and confused look. He never finished the sentence. In that moment, the world was crumbling before his eyes. There were shouts and whistles in the crowd. In a few seconds, the entire square was hooting and chanting.

Communist Romania stopped to exist in the moment then 80,000 people in the central square of Bucharest realized that they were much stronger than the old man in the fur hat trampling on the balcony. But what is most striking is not the collapse of the system, but the fact that it lasted for decades. Why are revolutions so rare? Why do the masses sometimes applaud and throw their hats in the air for centuries, doing all the commands of the man on the balcony, although theoretically they can rush forward at any moment and tear him to shreds?

Ceausescu managed to rule over twenty million Romanians for four whole decades, as he observed three important conditions. First, he gave to loyal employees all systems of interaction - the army, trade unions and even sports associations. Secondly, he didn’t allow to create of any opposition organizations - no matter political, economic or social - on the basis of which anti-communists could establish interaction. Thirdly, he resorted to the help of the fraternal communist parties of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe- these parties helped each other when necessary. Under such conditions,  twenty million Romanians were unable to organize effective opposition.

External data in the modern world is easy to modify. Another hair color, plastic, weight loss. Character traits, temperament, the presence of certain skills depend on the influence of society and work on oneself.

The formation of character and personality is a long process that begins in infancy. In addition to heredity, it is significantly influence such factors:

family atmosphere;

culture of education;

social environment

historical state of society;

profession, field of activity;

belonging to a religious movement.

Society, the environment of communication, is an important factor in the development of the child. Genes determine propensities for something, but the social shell determines behavior. The person, their environment, is responsible for them. Genes are a given, behavior is an alternative.

What is given to person by nature is a platform for construction.

Below are part of the interview with astronauts and biologists about what they learned about human body through science or experience.

1. Under stress the brain works twice as fast.

Sergei Ryazansky, Astronaut.

Before the flight, astronauts learn to deal with stress, because unforeseen situations and accidents on the ship can become a serious threat to the crew. One of the methods of training specialists is skydiving, and this is not just training in sports skills. In this way, instructors determine the stress level of future space explorers.

A voice recorder is fixed in the helmet, and a special card with the text with task that must be solved before the parachute open. Then the experts analyze the result - whether the decision was correct, how long time it took and how many obscene words the person used.

According to Ryazansky's experience, the solving the same task on the ground in a calm state took him 24 seconds, while in a jump he solved it in 12 seconds.

2. Memory can be full

Vyacheslav Dubynin

Professor of the Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University.

A small area of our brain called the hippocampus is responsible for short-term memory. It is very easy to overflow with the same type of information. Vyacheslav Dubynin calls this process the "museum effect". Walking around the Hermitage, in the first hour a person notices all the beautiful and interesting exhibits, then their enthusiasm fades, and at a certain moment the paintings and sculptures merge before their eyes into a single spot. So the brain signals the need to change the type of activity. It is best to switch to movement: 15-20 minutes of active walking will help our brain system reboot and work faster and more efficiently.

For example, if a stranger drives drunk, them will be called a criminal, immediately. If it will do a person which you know and like, then you may not come to a similar conclusion immediately (or not come at all). You will search excuses and make assumptions (for example, they had an unpleasant event in their life, and they only once).

The concept of "policy of double standards" is used in the context of international relations. For example, some countries may receive support, while others may receive sanctions. British writer Gerald Seymour illustrated this policy with one phrase: "For whom is a terrorist, and for whom is a freedom fighter." So, depending on the position of the valuer, the same person may be a “spy” or “intelligence officer”, “informer” or “informant”, and the behavior is characterized as “cowardly” or “cautious”, “provocative” or “inciting to action”. ".

Another example, if a man crying, he will be called weak, but a woman will be regret. However, the ability to express their emotions does not depend on gender.

Let's take a look at work situations. If you come to work in a sick state, you feel like a hard worker. If someone else does it, their will be called an irresponsible carrier of the virus.

Another example: a girl can accuse a colleague who flirts with her in harassment if he is not nice to her. However, she will be happy of the attention from a man who is pleasant to her.

This is the desire to get what you want right now, even if in the future it will bring more benefit or pleasure. YOLO-thinking can manifest itself in all areas of life - from work to leisure. Go to a cafe or eat at home, and save money for repairs? If you are a YOLO person, a cafe will certainly win.

YOLO-thinking significantly affects the economy and the labor market. After the pandemic, people realized that the opportunities that exist today can easily disappear tomorrow, which means that we need to catch the moment. Some people decide to quit their stable job and start their own business. Others go freelance for work with flexible schedule and spend more time with loved ones. Others try to find themselves in creativity.

The YOLO-principle is good because it helps to get rid of the delayed life syndrome. You begin to value the moment, get new experiences, feel happy - at least in the short term. Also, with YOLO principle, it becomes easier to adapt to change if you expect it to change your life for the better.

Is it possible to live fullest life and take care of the future at the same time? Yes, if you approach pleasure consciously. We feel happy when we live in accordance with our values.