The 'Come-last-cut-first' Syndrome

If you've ever waited in line, which most likely you have(due to the 'red tape' that exists everywhere), then you know the 'child's play' behavior that goes on when Greeks attempt to form a line. Usually you'll notice -if you've ever had to wait behind a long line- that the people who tend to come in last try and find ways to get between the disorderly line. They take advantage of the disorder since they know that that's how they'll fool people into believing that they were in line before them. What do I mean when I mention the word disorder? Well, think of a nice and orderly line arranged in sequential fashion. Then think of a glob of people(jumbled mess) looking over each others shoulder, one on top of the other(or even across from each other). Get the picture? There's no line cause people are so intent on being first that they sly their way(like snakes) through pretending that they're next. The line formation tends to look lopsided in the sense that everyone is scattered sideways and straddling their arms as if trying to create some blockade that no one can pass through. It's a sickening experience, and when you have to deal with this behavior on a daily basis it's even worse than before, because as each day passes you get the feeling that there are more and more people showing up.
As a result of their childishness, public service locations have installed ticket issuing machines so that each person who comes in gets his/her number and waits for his/her turn. But even these machines don't always create the order that you expect them to, since Greek people have found ways of manipulating others to give them their ticket in exchange for something that is usually not true. I remember trying to catch the line early in the morning one day when Greece's national bank('Ethniki') first opens up. When I got there, there was a mob of people waiting outside. After 5 minutes the Bank opened up its front gates and let everyone in. I had to wait 15 minutes till everyone went through to pick up their seating number. Once I got there and pushed the button a white slip came out of the machine with the number - 107. The tellers were servicing number 6, so I had to wait another 2 hours until my turn came around. As I waited a group of young kids came in and did the same thing. They pressed the button on the machine and they got a print-out of 307. They sneered at everyone and yelled out loud: "we'll be seeing you next week then cause there's no way in hell that you're going to get through with another 220 people while we wait around here like a bunch of turtles!" There insolence was quite audacious and blunt, but as I sat back and contemplated about what they said, they did have a point about the way the system worked as far as how the tellers were lackadaisical with the customers. And also, how the customers too took advantage of this by starting to converse with them about their personal lives, not minding the fact that 300 people are waiting behind them. Not only that but they also had them do trivial things -besides the job that they went there to do for that day- like look up their balance, or print out another copy of their account - the list goes on and on...

God Forbid: God forbid you should ever have to go to the national bank of Greece every day and have to go through what I described above. I think you'll eventually lose your mind and do what those youngsters did.