Cultural intransigence

The theory goes, it wasn't so long that the Greeks were living in Ottoman-occupied territory, so the authorities were the enemy, and flipping the bird to authority was a patriotic Greek thing to do.

OK, so that's understandable, but it gets problematic when the authorities are your own people.

That's one of the insistent claims of the rabble-rousers: that the people in charge, the authorities, are the Other, and that the Other needs to be removed, burned out, torn to pieces, if We are to have control of our own destiny.

It's the sort of attitude that leads to throwing a fire bomb into a bank building, blocking the firefighters from coming to put out the flames, and claiming it's the bank's fault that three people got burned to death inside.

And it crops up in little ways, too.

Take the bank airlocks that have cropped up in the last five years. In a lot of banks, if you want to get in, you have to go in one door to an armored-glass cubicle, push a button, and wait for the inner door of the cubicle to unlock and allow you into the bank proper. In many cases, they have two of the airlocks, each operating one way (the outgoing lock is easier, not demanding a long wait before allowing you back onto the street, but unlatching as soon as the inner door is latched).

They're clearly marked. The door on the right is for people going in, the door on the left is for people going out.

Well, the courier trying to get into the bank this morning decided that didn't apply to him. He went in the outbound door, kept pushing the button, and didn't seem to get the hint that he was trying to enter through the exit door.

Me: "You're using the wrong door!"
Him: "I just need to get in for a minute."
Me: "That door won't open! It's only for people going out!"
Him: "I just need to deliver something to the office."
Me: "You - need - to - use - the - other - door!"

Good lord, I need this three-day weekend coming up.