From Russia with Love?!

Comparison:

Russians had a saying that today would apply to more than a few other countries: “It’s easier to turn an aquarium into fish soup than to turn fish soup into an aquarium.”

Thomas Friedman, working hard to describe the utterly complex and difficult historical and human culture moment in which we find ourselves, borrows a Russian saying to capture the essence of worldwide human experience of tech, policy, governance, and related matters.

Context:

In 2011, the historian Walter Russell Mead observed that after the 1990s revolution that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians had a saying that today would apply to more than a few other countries: “It’s easier to turn an aquarium into fish soup than to turn fish soup into an aquarium.”

Citation:

Friedman, Thomas L. “Welcome to Our New Era. What Do We Call It?“ New York Times, 10 November 2025. Web

(Visual Image Design by Lee Aigue; initial images courtesy of Bing and Gerry Brague, Flickr, Nov. 2025.)