“McKinsey response” to “Putin paradox”

Over the last few days many of us have been puzzled by what I would call a “Putin paradox”. Namely, that those who for the last two years were actively supporting authoritarians and segregation "inside" their own countries, are now actively protesting against an authoritarian regime waging war "outside". And many of those who were honestly fighting for reason, freedom and liberty "inside" their countries, are now wholeheartedly supporting an aggressive regime "outside", that is about to destroy freedom and liberty in this own, as well as in the neighbouring country.

While I was trying to figure out what is going on (even pondering about adverse impact of Covid infection and vaccines on the brains), I recalled a colleague of mine once telling me a story about his first few days as a junior consultant at McKinsey. According to him, he got the best consulting advice from a senior colleague: “when the client asks a question you don’t know how to answer, just draw a two-by-two matrix...” (a very popular consulting “tool” those days)

And that’s what I did. Simply plotting the “pro- and “anti-vax” and “pro- and “anti-Putin” on a two-by-two grids and trying to figure out the main characteristics of the four groups. Just note that the “pro-vax” includes not only those supporting mandatory Covid vaccinations, but all types of largely “authoritarian” response measures to Covid-19 crisis: lockdowns, mask mandates, segregation of the unvaccinated etc. And the “pro-Putin” include not only those who directly support the Russian aggression, but also those who find logical, geopolitical, economic, social and other “justifications” and rationale for it. So here it is, the diagram of “McKinsey response” to “Putin paradox”...

Pro-vax Pro-Putin

Somewhat naïve people, easily scared and brainwashed by anything that is perceived as threatening to their own physical existence. Need to feel “protected”, preferably by someone “bigger and stronger” (e.g. parents, government). Not ready to accept responsibility for their own actions. Trust any authority blindly, admire whoever they perceive as “strong leaders”. Would accept more or less any restrictions, just to “feel safe”.  Overall show a clear type of “infantile” behavior. That’s why I called them “Children”.

Anti-vax Pro-Putin

A very eclectic group. On the one hand, they are very scared of any uncertainty, and are desperately looking for any “explanation” of what is going on. But, on the other, they do not trust and believe anyone. Unlike “children”, they do have the capacity to “make connections”, but, lacking the knowledge and experience of “adults”, they often make the wrong ones. That quickly turns them into perfect “conspiracy theorists”, who would see the “hand” of WEF more or less everywhere, and would quickly start believing their own “propaganda”. In short, typical “Teenagers”...

Anti-vax Anti-Putin

Mostly “libertarian”, rationally thinking people who don’t believe any propaganda, try to check facts (for real), generally see a bigger picture and longer-term consequences of any actions. They would usually believe in some sort of “universal human values”, and that there are more important things that just one’s “physical” survival. Most would believe that life without individual liberties, human rights, liberal democracy is not worth living. I would call them the “Adults”.

 Pro-vax Anti-Putin

This group seems to have a firm belief in a sort of inherent “supremacy” of their own social, economic and political system (usually the “Western” one) over any other ways of life on Earth.  Whatever their own governments do is accepted and followed with no questions asked, whatever governments in “other” parts of the world do is simply “inferior”, “not important” and should be dealt with accordingly. Often fixed in their opinions, they seem to only be concerned about the lives of “their own”, prepared to sacrifice any “other lives” just to feel safe (a sort of  “Our lives matter”). Since they don’t seem to be too concerned about any long-term future, I would call them the “Elderly”...

 That’s it, folks. A rough, incomplete and “unscientific” attempt to resolve “Putin paradox” using a very simple, or even simplistic, “McKinsey-type” matrix. I am fully aware that the world is much more complicated than that, and that, hopefully, generations of researches will produce tons of “scientific” papers pondering on it. But we are in the middle of it now. And sometimes we do need “simple” answers to be able to do “the right thing”, here and now.

 P.S. Notice one thing. The overall majority of people now seems to be falling into the categories of “children”, “teenagers” and the “elderly”. Are these really the right people to deal with the crisis we are facing right now?