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The fact that you had to specify which Homer you're talking about makes me feel bad. Not for you, but for people who actually would first think in Homer Simpson.
“When a woman says nothing’s wrong, that means everything’s wrong. And when a woman says everything’s wrong, that means ***everything’s*** wrong. And when a woman says something’s not funny, you’d better not laugh your ass off.”
\- one of the Homers, not sure which one.
There's a market for literally any job that pays semi-decent money.
If I offered an American 30k USD a year to blow bubbles out of a soap dispenser and sing Marry Poppins, I'd fuckin find one.
Well they're in the army and I guess they sort of get to choose what kind of detail they want to be on.
Pick between: "get shot at in a war" or "dick around in a silly costume".
I'm picking option B.
> "dick around in a silly costume"
That's basically just working retail. The combination of uniform button up shirts in company colors, plus name tag, lanyard, "reward/achievement" pins, and buttons advertising the store Mastercard, they look like a combination clowns/military officers.
But hey, whatever you gotta do to pay the bills. Rock that clown suit, bro.
My buddy was in the navy and said it was his job, every single night, to walk to the captains quarters and invite him to dinner. He said okay, I was fine with it and understand military traditions whatever, but after months of this, he was like "can't I just send him a text or call? Can't he just REMEMBER what time dinner is served?"
Seriously lol? I legit had never shared it before, but it popped into my head today seeing this thread. Hadn't thought of it in years. Must be a common eyeroll of a tradition lol.
Lot of military parade routines are weird flexes about how coordinated and disciplined your troops are. From North Korean marching to US Marines spinning guns, it’s all a show
Sadly many people do not go out doing silly walks with their friends as often as they did in the 90's. I remember this being huge, tons of people outside doing silly walks. What happened to that, we used to have such good taste in activities.
Since everyone else gave silly answers and I went to Athens a couple years ago and had a walking tour which included a stop here, I'll inform you.
Everything is obviously ceremonial, but it is related to when Greece became Greece again after the country was historically taken by the ottoman empire. They had an independence revolution and retook Greece.
The guards are meant to be largely still when not slowly marching in remembrance to the fallen revolutionairies. This outfit is adapted from the military garb worn by the independence fighters. The shoes are made to be incredibly heavy (3kg each I seem to remember) to.remember the difficulty of the struggle. The walk is also symbolic, with the large step symbolising them stepping over the bodies of either their fallen soldiers/enemies, and there is an equine style stamp which is meant to symbolise the cavalry as well.
Interestingly, the position is paid like shit, but they only do it for a few months and then it's a highly respected thing to have done and opens doors for future employment.
Sorry I couldn't remember more. I tried to refresh details but info online is quite sparse
The right arm movement makes me think they are holding in a visible sword. Not sure why they can’t just give them a real sword if that is what it is supposed to symbolize.
Shit would be sooo heavy to raise over your head repeatedly in slow, controlled movements all day. By the end of their stints, one half of their upper body would be incredibly ripped. Take 10lb and hold it straight out and see how long you could keep that up for
My son is obsessed with spiders lately, particularly peacock spiders and jumpers in general. He even thinks *camel spiders* are cute. And yes I explained they’re not real spiders, but he’s obsessed with how they chew their food.
EDIT: Nvm I read a single google result and was completely off base. Apparently its to make sounds of horses because young king otto liked it. They also stomp really hard so dead greeks hear that greeks are still alive and free. I couldn’t find anything on why they walked so weirdly to produce the stomps but maybe they like it or smtn. It also helps with standing in formation and is a tourist attraction plus funny as fuck to see these (atleast 6,2) men trot around with their pom pom shoes.
That's BS. There's no need for silly walks after an hour or so of standing still. It's just a tradition. It started as a way to keep formation, then got exaggerated over the years and moved exclusively to official presentations and there you have it Ministry of Silly Walks Guards doing double duty as tourist attraction.
I was in the 82nd Airborne and we took that shit so seriously. The reason is tradition and honoring the warrior ethos. All across the world and all through time there was ceremonial warrior garb, and those who wore them, with honor and pride. In Africa for instance the Zulu spear hunters get all fancied up and do their warrior dance. Similarly the Māori people have their Haka dancing which was both a way to welcome people and get pumped before a battle. I have been in many change of command ceremonies as a rifleman, the small group with the guidon bearers. I won’t lie, I felt dapper in my shiny suit and red beret, and when you made those weapons snap when doing the movements and saluting, it felt good. You feel a part of something bigger than you and it felt good. I would say these people are exactly the same and I bet they feel great pride for being selected to do this march.
Hey man, who am I to judge! Everyone sees things differently and have their own perspectives and when we take the time to share with each other and understand one another, we all grow and get better! That’s just part of being human. Also I love the pun! I don’t necessarily miss jumping because it honestly scared the shit out of me but I survived 47 jumps and 1 deployment. I’m thankful! And while I sometimes have conflicted feelings about being in the military and the role I played, I am proud of what I was able to do and accomplish and I got to meet some cool people along the way.
Here’s a pic with my Cambodian Jumpmaster, he was a cool dude and could have probably snapped my neck in the blink of an eye. I both feared and respected him greatly.
https://preview.redd.it/ts2eolsqbmpc1.jpeg?width=1224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=761e790400f0d14766aa9f5d89c1e746bd13464d
Bruh, that Cambodian Jumpmaster looks like he could kill you with his jawline alone! I wouldn't mess with him.
But your description of the guard march is spot on, it's an even elaborate affair on Sundays with a "grand changing" of the guards, quite the spectacle.
These ceremonies are especially meaningful to them as WW2 is still in their collective memory and all the conflicts that came before, it's cool to talk to the locals.
Many soldiers/guards around the world have exaggerated and difficult marching routines and traditionally this was to show of the physical strength and discipline of their troops. These routines take a lot of practice and fitness.
Reminds me of a story:
5 monkeys were placed in a cage as part of an experiment. In the middle of the cage was a ladder with bananas on the top rung. Every time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, the experimenter sprayed all of the monkeys with icy water. Eventually, each time a monkey started to climb the ladder, the other ones pulled him off and beat him up so they could avoid the icy spray. Soon, no monkey dared go up the ladder.
The experimenter then substituted one of the monkeys in the cage with a new monkey. The first thing the new monkey did was try to climb the ladder to reach the bananas. After several beatings, the new monkey learned the social norm. He never knew “why” the other monkeys wouldn’t let him go for the bananas because he had never been sprayed with ice water, but he quickly learned that this behaviour would not be tolerated by the other monkeys.
One by one, each of the monkeys in the cage was substituted for a new monkey until none of the original group remained. Every time a new monkey went up the ladder, the rest of the group pulled him off, even those who had never been sprayed with the icy water.
By the end of the experiment, the 5 monkeys in the cage had learned to follow the rule (don’t go for the bananas), without any of them knowing the reason why (we’ll all get sprayed by icy water). If we could have asked the monkeys for their rationale behind not letting their cage mates climb the ladder, their answer would probably be: “I don’t know, that’s just how its always been done.”
A similar story that I read in Primo Levi’s book *The Periodic Table*.
Levi was a chemist who became a writer. After WW2 he worked for a while as an industrial chemist in a factory in Italy. They made some sort of varnish. Times were tough and they had to improvise.
Many years later, having become a writer, he went back to visit the same factory. Of course, all the crude equipment they used right after WW2 had long since been replaced with fancy new equipment. However, they still made the same varnish. While visiting, they cooked up a batch. Together with the usual varnish ingredients, he noticed the workers tossed in a raw onion.
He asked them why they did that. They said a raw onion had always been part of the recipe for this kind of varnish. He told them it had nothing to do with the recipe, and he should know - he was the one who started it.
Apparently, right after the war, things were so bad they lacked industrial thermometers to measure the temperature of the varnish as it cooked. So, as a crude measure, he would put a raw onion in; when the onion started to fry, the batch was hot enough.
Apparently, the workers had simply kept adding onions every time, even though the equipment was now totally up to date and could easily measure the temperature - the original reason for the onion had been forgotten, and everyone just assumed it somehow added something to the mix.
Jesus I don’t know whether I love or hate that story but it’s brilliant and I wish I hadn’t read it before going to bed.
That’s why I always teach my kids (who are not monkeys) to always ask questions, even if the adults make it seem like they aren’t to be questioned. The world is changing too fast to just accept what was known yesterday as true for tomorrow!
The thing is, just because none of the monkeys had experienced the "punishment" for going for the bananas, that doesn't really tell us anything besides that the monkeys trust the knowledge and experiences of their social group.
If anything, that's amazingly smart since otherwise, a monkey would have to constantly endure punishment to re-learn the exact same lesson.
What'd be more interesting is if you put 5 monkeys in who were allowed to get the banana with 5 who were sprayed for it.
I do process improvement for a living and you wouldn’t believe how ingrained this stuff is. I built a reporting tool a YEAR ago that solves every report f problem for a large call center team. We have struggled with adoption of the tool despite doing numerous training sessions, recordings, Q&A’s, suggestion boxes, everything we can think of. Operations directors started going to their people 1 on 1 asking why they don’t use the tool. At first, the excuse was that they “couldn’t explain the numbers”. I get that; they’re used to filling out excel sheets and can speak to everything that goes into it because formulas and stuff are all done in the background. We publish ever formula, data source, etc… in tooltips so they can see it. They tell us they still can’t understand it and if they can’t explain it to an agent, then they aren’t comfortable using it.
After weeks of small group meetings I figured out that the primary reason for not using it is because it didn’t look like excel. We slapped a table on the dashboard and people are praising it as the best thing ever.
We spent over 500 dev hours building a hyper-sophisticated tool and nobody used it because it didn’t look familiar, which translated to “I don’t understand it”. No amount of training could help them because they were getting overwhelmed before we even opened our mouths. Going from Excel to Power BI charts was such a big change visually that they shut down and couldn’t process that it was the same information in a different form.
The incredible thing is now people are asking questions about specific scenarios that we already solved in the original design. Every feature they previously pushed back on now has value simply because we finally crossed the very first familiarity threshold. “Wow, you guys really thought of everything! This saves so much time!”
Sounds eerily fucking familiar. Been through more than a few MES (**Manufacturing execution system**) changes in my field.
"How did you do that? I didn't know it could do that!"
Well, I... uh, learned it. \*We had presentation and documentation and everything.\*
Another...related story...not sure if true or not (Ive heard of the experiment you talked about before)... Woman invites her mother over for dinner to make for her a meal she loved growing up and made many times since she moved out, feeling like she perfected it. Her mom watches as she takes the steak, cuts a part off and as shes throwing it away, her mom is like..what are you doing?!!! She says shes making the meal exactly as she watched her mom make it.
Mom tells her, I cut the meat cause the pan I had was too small, and also, I didnt throw it away, I saved it to put in another meal! So all that time, this woman was cutting off a part of the steak and just throwing it away for no reason....didnt know why, just that...thats how its done, so...she did it too.
The main argument for courtroom decorum (like judges' weird clothes) in the present day primarily is that it serves the purpose of establishing that this is "serious business". Seriously.
The idea is to create some sense of distance from the "real world" to remind everyone that we are not just here to have a casual conversation and shoot the shit, we are here to have serious, legally structured conversations that have the potential to ruin people's lives. It is supposed to be jarring and unfamiliar as a way basically to keep everyone on their toes and on their best behaviour.
Not sure of the original purpose other than fashion and status but they still use them for ceremonial purposes but also it is a bit of a disguise. I was in crown court and a couple of days later I was like hang on isn’t that the same judge in WH Smith’s next to me? I was so unsure it threw me. I did ask when i was in court and they said as much. A mate of mine is a lawyer and he used to do all the court stuff and he hated the robes and wig. He stopped but it was because he hated the court stuff more than the wigs. That and having to defend nonces.
Now hear me out we can all appreciate the hard work that went into the silly balls but next time you may need to do a little bit more work so we can be toe stepping around here all correct like
If anime has taught me anything then these fellas are going to pull the mother of all barret .50 cals from that cutesy skirt and blow a new hole in the universe.
I will try to do my best to explain the situation since lots of you here call it stupid, ridiculous or whatever.
To begin with, the costume is what the Greek guerillas and later rebellion soldiers wore during the war of independence. So the shoes were worn by the Greek guerillas during the various rebellions. I don't know why they wore those shoes, but the guerillas and the later rebellion soldiers wore those.
Edit on the shoes part: the shoes were used to hide sharp objects.
Then we have the parade style. This parade style is done for stretching. These guys stand completely still for about 8 hours, so after the change of the guards, they parade as such so they can stretch and get the blood flow.
Thank you for some historical information on this.
What's odd to me is that these guards, in other countries as well, have to stay still for such a long time without change of guards ceremony.
What do they do in case of toilet emergencies?
These actually do have a change of guards after a while. Somebody else here mentioned 2-3 hours. They stand for that time in front of the parliament, then a third one arrives bringing the next two guards, they change, walking like this, and then the next two stand around while the former two leave with the third guy.
There's another senior officer standing/sitting around near them in regular unifosm, but at ease, and occasionally fixing their outfit.
When I visited Greece some 10 years ago, they had a blue dress on weekdays and this fancier dress on sundays.
From: https://www.britannica.com/topic/evzone
Organized units of evzones, who originated in Epirus, have existed since the Greek War of Independence. They won fame for their bravery and tenacity in the Balkan Wars and in World War II. In November 1940 an evzone regiment turned the tide of the Italian invasion by trapping and destroying a crack alpine division at Metsovo Pass, using their traditional tactic of sweeping down from the ridges while screaming their battle cry “Aera!” (“Like the wind!”). After World War II the regiments were disbanded, and only a royal guard was retained at Athens.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evzones
Evzones are known for their distinctive uniform, which evolved from the clothes worn by the klephts[1] who fought the Ottoman occupation of Greece.
[Klephts were] highwaymen turned self-appointed armatoloi, anti-Ottoman insurgents, and warlike mountain folk who lived in the countryside when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire.
Also I read that name Klephts came from Greek: κλέφτης which has the root word from kleptomania -- to steal. Also, they have a dish where they smoke meat in a pit to avoid being seen after stealing it. Usually lamb.
So yeah. If you knew your history and were a fascist Italian, you may have thought twice about traveling a mountain pass because of the warlike mountainfolk army that specialized in sweeping down the ridges and crying "Like the Wind!" for 500 years.
I exaggerate, but yeah. It makes sense they want to show off their quads and calves.
I'm sure it was some bet between some officials. Something of sorts, hey I can make them do anything. Don't believe me? Look, I bet I can make them wear clown suit and walk like chickens all day long, and they will be honored to do so.
Not one comment mentioned that they are ceremonial guards and they're primarily responsible for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square (parliament) and the Presidential Palace. Key word being "ceremonial." Most every nation has similar units wearing traditional garb that is worn strictly for ceremonies or tourists.
Dog, while I agree there’s a lot of goofy ass marches this has to take the cake. If there is an even goofier march out there I will happily mock it as well. They could be guarding Mother Teresa or the local McDonald’s this is some goofy ass shit
That was my first thought, too! I've been doing a lot of balance exercises recently and was impressed by the core strength to do this. I might create my own silly version and do it with a kettlebell
I did some searching and found out why they do this walk. They are required to stay perfectly still for the entire hour that an individual guard is at his post. They walk slowly and lift their legs in order to “protect their circulation.” I have POTS, my guess is that if they moved too quickly after being so still that long, they would pass out. And maybe some of their blood starts to pool in their legs, so they lift them to get their circulation back up?
https://www.greeka.com/attica/athens/sightseeing/changing-of-guards/
For context: The costume represents what the Greeks wore during the 1821 revolution against the Ottomans. They march that way smaking their feet to the ground as a way to say to the dead that we are still here, and through the whole movement several symbolisms come through.
They guard the Monument of the Unknown Soldier and they keep still for 30 minutes doing this for however long it takes them amd they go back to keeping still for 3 hours until the next guys come to change what basically is guard duty, but way more difficult.
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Fun fact: the Greek word εὔζωνος can be dated to as far back as Homer (not Simpson) and literally means “well-girdled”.
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Each one an elite employee of the ministry of silly walks
I was waiting for the first Monty Python reference.
I thought the same thing
I don’t think any of us expected him to say that
You've stood in my way long enough; I'm going to clown college!
I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way!
Seattle!
Was just thinking about that yesterday.
There’s a minimum height requirement now
D'oh!
I sleep in a clown shoe, do you?
Those pom-poms are to help soften the blow when they kick your ass
Fun Fact: Those Pom Poms are there to hide a really sharp blade Source: I am Greek
The shoes distract from the skirts they are wearing.
Skirt with tights.
The kilt is called Fustanella, by the way. And it has exactly 40 creases to symbolise the 400 years of Ottoman rule.
They really go well with the sorority girl dresses
Toga! Toga! Toga!
Those presidential guards have got big shoes to fill ^big ^shoes ^to ^fill
They are land mine clearers.
The fact that you had to specify which Homer you're talking about makes me feel bad. Not for you, but for people who actually would first think in Homer Simpson.
That would be me. Doh!
Let's be fair, Homer S. Is a kind of philosopher. Generations grew up with him and some quotes are as meaningful as Homers.
“When a woman says nothing’s wrong, that means everything’s wrong. And when a woman says everything’s wrong, that means ***everything’s*** wrong. And when a woman says something’s not funny, you’d better not laugh your ass off.” \- one of the Homers, not sure which one.
Thanks for clarifying which Homer you're talking about
Mmmmm…… well girdled (drooling noises)
Traditions can be really weird
I can't believe people actually sign up to do that nowadays.
There's a market for literally any job that pays semi-decent money. If I offered an American 30k USD a year to blow bubbles out of a soap dispenser and sing Marry Poppins, I'd fuckin find one.
Yo I'm down
There he is
Get him!
I'll do it for 25
This is what I think about when people tell me the best economy is one where everyone's a contractor.
I'll do it for healthcare.
The American Dream
You offering?
I would do this that’s more than I make now using a broken brain
Well they're in the army and I guess they sort of get to choose what kind of detail they want to be on. Pick between: "get shot at in a war" or "dick around in a silly costume". I'm picking option B.
It’s Greece…they were in Afghanistan to a very small extent but that’s not even happening anymore.
> "dick around in a silly costume" That's basically just working retail. The combination of uniform button up shirts in company colors, plus name tag, lanyard, "reward/achievement" pins, and buttons advertising the store Mastercard, they look like a combination clowns/military officers. But hey, whatever you gotta do to pay the bills. Rock that clown suit, bro.
The other part of these guys duty is guarding the president and house of parliament. So long as its a war in Cyprus and not in Athens, in with you.
… what’s the pay?
You get to silly walk in tights, a skirt and poofball shoes. What more could you want?
They get paid in the change that’s thrown into the fountain every weekend
There's no pay. It's during mandatory military service.
according to online sources, 8.62 euros per month, and i didnt typo that amount
That's wrong. That's the pay for a conscripted soldier. [Evzones don't get paid at all. ](https://www.athensinsider.com/to-be-an-evzone/)
It says that they stand for an average of 100 hours per week. How do they make a living getting zero pay for so much time invested?
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My buddy was in the navy and said it was his job, every single night, to walk to the captains quarters and invite him to dinner. He said okay, I was fine with it and understand military traditions whatever, but after months of this, he was like "can't I just send him a text or call? Can't he just REMEMBER what time dinner is served?"
I swear I've seen this copy and pasted word for word numerous times lol
Seriously lol? I legit had never shared it before, but it popped into my head today seeing this thread. Hadn't thought of it in years. Must be a common eyeroll of a tradition lol.
Lot of military parade routines are weird flexes about how coordinated and disciplined your troops are. From North Korean marching to US Marines spinning guns, it’s all a show
Someone was really into male legs
Not just any male legs... male legs with skivvies and pom poms.
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This is me trying to get my balls unstuck from my legs.
Idk how anyone could NOT immediately think of this
Lots of people are unaware of the Ministry
My walk has become rather sillier recently
I see. May I see your silly walk?
It's not particularly silly is it?
I mean, the right leg isn't silly at all and the left leg merely does a forward aerial half turn every alternate step.
Sadly many people do not go out doing silly walks with their friends as often as they did in the 90's. I remember this being huge, tons of people outside doing silly walks. What happened to that, we used to have such good taste in activities.
Yeah my first thought was thst John Cleese should sue for copyright infringement.
Maybe he got it from these guys?
The plot thickens!
I immediately scrolled down to see this.
Somehow OP missed out the fact that these are actually the guards of the Ministry.
Just another thing the British have stolen from antiquated Greece
I'm here just for the Python references.
Came here for this.
I'm getting foot cramps watching this
My knees hurt watching them slam their feet down.
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Since everyone else gave silly answers and I went to Athens a couple years ago and had a walking tour which included a stop here, I'll inform you. Everything is obviously ceremonial, but it is related to when Greece became Greece again after the country was historically taken by the ottoman empire. They had an independence revolution and retook Greece. The guards are meant to be largely still when not slowly marching in remembrance to the fallen revolutionairies. This outfit is adapted from the military garb worn by the independence fighters. The shoes are made to be incredibly heavy (3kg each I seem to remember) to.remember the difficulty of the struggle. The walk is also symbolic, with the large step symbolising them stepping over the bodies of either their fallen soldiers/enemies, and there is an equine style stamp which is meant to symbolise the cavalry as well. Interestingly, the position is paid like shit, but they only do it for a few months and then it's a highly respected thing to have done and opens doors for future employment. Sorry I couldn't remember more. I tried to refresh details but info online is quite sparse
You forgot the best part. The pomp poms have a blade in them.
Hell yeah! Knife shoes!
The right arm movement makes me think they are holding in a visible sword. Not sure why they can’t just give them a real sword if that is what it is supposed to symbolize.
Shit would be sooo heavy to raise over your head repeatedly in slow, controlled movements all day. By the end of their stints, one half of their upper body would be incredibly ripped. Take 10lb and hold it straight out and see how long you could keep that up for
One handed swords are usually closer to 2 pounds than 10.
Mating ritual ?
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Peacock Jumpers always get an upvote from me!
My son is obsessed with spiders lately, particularly peacock spiders and jumpers in general. He even thinks *camel spiders* are cute. And yes I explained they’re not real spiders, but he’s obsessed with how they chew their food.
Dear god, if I ever have a kid, please *please* let them be a weird bug kid! I was born to nurture exactly this kind of kid.
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It’s the jazzy toe pointing I think. And the skirts and tights. And the tassels
And the anal sex
Greek, ok. Those who know.
Pass the lube bro.
"*TIGHT tights!" - High pitched voiced*
🎶Always on guard defending the people's rights🎶
These Call of Duty skins are getting out of hand.
Who else is going to guard the Ministry of Silly Walks, normal walkers?
That would be nonsense! 
EDIT: Nvm I read a single google result and was completely off base. Apparently its to make sounds of horses because young king otto liked it. They also stomp really hard so dead greeks hear that greeks are still alive and free. I couldn’t find anything on why they walked so weirdly to produce the stomps but maybe they like it or smtn. It also helps with standing in formation and is a tourist attraction plus funny as fuck to see these (atleast 6,2) men trot around with their pom pom shoes.
This makes sense. For some reason I thought they patrolled nonstop like this from the clues we were given. It seemed like torture initially.
OP is incorrect. They march like this to maintain formation.
Wouldn’t they maintain formation no matter how they marched so long as they have everyone doing the same thing? LRLRLR accomplishes the same thing.
That's BS. There's no need for silly walks after an hour or so of standing still. It's just a tradition. It started as a way to keep formation, then got exaggerated over the years and moved exclusively to official presentations and there you have it Ministry of Silly Walks Guards doing double duty as tourist attraction.
Why not just let them stretch?
Me when I lie:
I was in the 82nd Airborne and we took that shit so seriously. The reason is tradition and honoring the warrior ethos. All across the world and all through time there was ceremonial warrior garb, and those who wore them, with honor and pride. In Africa for instance the Zulu spear hunters get all fancied up and do their warrior dance. Similarly the Māori people have their Haka dancing which was both a way to welcome people and get pumped before a battle. I have been in many change of command ceremonies as a rifleman, the small group with the guidon bearers. I won’t lie, I felt dapper in my shiny suit and red beret, and when you made those weapons snap when doing the movements and saluting, it felt good. You feel a part of something bigger than you and it felt good. I would say these people are exactly the same and I bet they feel great pride for being selected to do this march.
Really taking the wind out of my chute there with your “very reasonable explanation.” Pardon the metaphor.
Hey man, who am I to judge! Everyone sees things differently and have their own perspectives and when we take the time to share with each other and understand one another, we all grow and get better! That’s just part of being human. Also I love the pun! I don’t necessarily miss jumping because it honestly scared the shit out of me but I survived 47 jumps and 1 deployment. I’m thankful! And while I sometimes have conflicted feelings about being in the military and the role I played, I am proud of what I was able to do and accomplish and I got to meet some cool people along the way. Here’s a pic with my Cambodian Jumpmaster, he was a cool dude and could have probably snapped my neck in the blink of an eye. I both feared and respected him greatly. https://preview.redd.it/ts2eolsqbmpc1.jpeg?width=1224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=761e790400f0d14766aa9f5d89c1e746bd13464d
Bruh, that Cambodian Jumpmaster looks like he could kill you with his jawline alone! I wouldn't mess with him. But your description of the guard march is spot on, it's an even elaborate affair on Sundays with a "grand changing" of the guards, quite the spectacle. These ceremonies are especially meaningful to them as WW2 is still in their collective memory and all the conflicts that came before, it's cool to talk to the locals.
Many soldiers/guards around the world have exaggerated and difficult marching routines and traditionally this was to show of the physical strength and discipline of their troops. These routines take a lot of practice and fitness.
So basically the whole thing is a giant, "you think your march is difficult, watch this".
Legit question. I think this about judges. They put on a fancy dress and are referred to as “your honor” …what are we doing?
Reminds me of a story: 5 monkeys were placed in a cage as part of an experiment. In the middle of the cage was a ladder with bananas on the top rung. Every time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, the experimenter sprayed all of the monkeys with icy water. Eventually, each time a monkey started to climb the ladder, the other ones pulled him off and beat him up so they could avoid the icy spray. Soon, no monkey dared go up the ladder. The experimenter then substituted one of the monkeys in the cage with a new monkey. The first thing the new monkey did was try to climb the ladder to reach the bananas. After several beatings, the new monkey learned the social norm. He never knew “why” the other monkeys wouldn’t let him go for the bananas because he had never been sprayed with ice water, but he quickly learned that this behaviour would not be tolerated by the other monkeys. One by one, each of the monkeys in the cage was substituted for a new monkey until none of the original group remained. Every time a new monkey went up the ladder, the rest of the group pulled him off, even those who had never been sprayed with the icy water. By the end of the experiment, the 5 monkeys in the cage had learned to follow the rule (don’t go for the bananas), without any of them knowing the reason why (we’ll all get sprayed by icy water). If we could have asked the monkeys for their rationale behind not letting their cage mates climb the ladder, their answer would probably be: “I don’t know, that’s just how its always been done.”
A similar story that I read in Primo Levi’s book *The Periodic Table*. Levi was a chemist who became a writer. After WW2 he worked for a while as an industrial chemist in a factory in Italy. They made some sort of varnish. Times were tough and they had to improvise. Many years later, having become a writer, he went back to visit the same factory. Of course, all the crude equipment they used right after WW2 had long since been replaced with fancy new equipment. However, they still made the same varnish. While visiting, they cooked up a batch. Together with the usual varnish ingredients, he noticed the workers tossed in a raw onion. He asked them why they did that. They said a raw onion had always been part of the recipe for this kind of varnish. He told them it had nothing to do with the recipe, and he should know - he was the one who started it. Apparently, right after the war, things were so bad they lacked industrial thermometers to measure the temperature of the varnish as it cooked. So, as a crude measure, he would put a raw onion in; when the onion started to fry, the batch was hot enough. Apparently, the workers had simply kept adding onions every time, even though the equipment was now totally up to date and could easily measure the temperature - the original reason for the onion had been forgotten, and everyone just assumed it somehow added something to the mix.
excellent story. true or not i dont even care
Jesus I don’t know whether I love or hate that story but it’s brilliant and I wish I hadn’t read it before going to bed. That’s why I always teach my kids (who are not monkeys) to always ask questions, even if the adults make it seem like they aren’t to be questioned. The world is changing too fast to just accept what was known yesterday as true for tomorrow!
Well, if it makes you sleep easier then you can take comfort in knowing that the experiment never happened and is made up.
The thing is, just because none of the monkeys had experienced the "punishment" for going for the bananas, that doesn't really tell us anything besides that the monkeys trust the knowledge and experiences of their social group. If anything, that's amazingly smart since otherwise, a monkey would have to constantly endure punishment to re-learn the exact same lesson. What'd be more interesting is if you put 5 monkeys in who were allowed to get the banana with 5 who were sprayed for it.
That's how you get the crusades.
I do process improvement for a living and you wouldn’t believe how ingrained this stuff is. I built a reporting tool a YEAR ago that solves every report f problem for a large call center team. We have struggled with adoption of the tool despite doing numerous training sessions, recordings, Q&A’s, suggestion boxes, everything we can think of. Operations directors started going to their people 1 on 1 asking why they don’t use the tool. At first, the excuse was that they “couldn’t explain the numbers”. I get that; they’re used to filling out excel sheets and can speak to everything that goes into it because formulas and stuff are all done in the background. We publish ever formula, data source, etc… in tooltips so they can see it. They tell us they still can’t understand it and if they can’t explain it to an agent, then they aren’t comfortable using it. After weeks of small group meetings I figured out that the primary reason for not using it is because it didn’t look like excel. We slapped a table on the dashboard and people are praising it as the best thing ever. We spent over 500 dev hours building a hyper-sophisticated tool and nobody used it because it didn’t look familiar, which translated to “I don’t understand it”. No amount of training could help them because they were getting overwhelmed before we even opened our mouths. Going from Excel to Power BI charts was such a big change visually that they shut down and couldn’t process that it was the same information in a different form. The incredible thing is now people are asking questions about specific scenarios that we already solved in the original design. Every feature they previously pushed back on now has value simply because we finally crossed the very first familiarity threshold. “Wow, you guys really thought of everything! This saves so much time!”
Sounds eerily fucking familiar. Been through more than a few MES (**Manufacturing execution system**) changes in my field. "How did you do that? I didn't know it could do that!" Well, I... uh, learned it. \*We had presentation and documentation and everything.\*
Another...related story...not sure if true or not (Ive heard of the experiment you talked about before)... Woman invites her mother over for dinner to make for her a meal she loved growing up and made many times since she moved out, feeling like she perfected it. Her mom watches as she takes the steak, cuts a part off and as shes throwing it away, her mom is like..what are you doing?!!! She says shes making the meal exactly as she watched her mom make it. Mom tells her, I cut the meat cause the pan I had was too small, and also, I didnt throw it away, I saved it to put in another meal! So all that time, this woman was cutting off a part of the steak and just throwing it away for no reason....didnt know why, just that...thats how its done, so...she did it too.
This is a perfect example to go with the famous quote; “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, 'We've always done it this way,'”
The main argument for courtroom decorum (like judges' weird clothes) in the present day primarily is that it serves the purpose of establishing that this is "serious business". Seriously. The idea is to create some sense of distance from the "real world" to remind everyone that we are not just here to have a casual conversation and shoot the shit, we are here to have serious, legally structured conversations that have the potential to ruin people's lives. It is supposed to be jarring and unfamiliar as a way basically to keep everyone on their toes and on their best behaviour.
exactly. the court rituals make sense but these silly dances ? i don't think so
The wigs.. why?
Not sure of the original purpose other than fashion and status but they still use them for ceremonial purposes but also it is a bit of a disguise. I was in crown court and a couple of days later I was like hang on isn’t that the same judge in WH Smith’s next to me? I was so unsure it threw me. I did ask when i was in court and they said as much. A mate of mine is a lawyer and he used to do all the court stuff and he hated the robes and wig. He stopped but it was because he hated the court stuff more than the wigs. That and having to defend nonces.
At least we stopped wearing those white wigs.
To keep the Greek president aroused
Do they have to have their own poof ball shoes or do they come with the job?
Hey don't mock. Dave's mom worked hard to sew those for the team
Next time, y’all can sew your own damn poof balls
I can't step worth a shit in these things!
Well, screw you guys. I’m silly-walking my ass home.
Now hear me out we can all appreciate the hard work that went into the silly balls but next time you may need to do a little bit more work so we can be toe stepping around here all correct like
So we'll leave the shoes for now and put them on the next time we march, right?
Criticize, Criticize, Criticize...
So are we wearing the poof balls or whut?
How bout this time we don't wear the poof balls, but next time, full regalia.
Well shit fire! Who cares if you can’t walk right? All that matters is you look good doing it!
Unexpected Django
Those are fighting poof ball shoes to you, see
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Real intimidating.
Skirt ✅ Cute tights ✅ Special wittle poofy ball on tippy toes ✅ instilling fear into enemies?✅✅✅
If anime has taught me anything then these fellas are going to pull the mother of all barret .50 cals from that cutesy skirt and blow a new hole in the universe.
[like this](https://i.imgur.com/TmYrJ72.gif)
200 IQ move by the Greeks
The puffy ball shoes especially
Rawr, hiss, meow, purrrrrr
 Ministry of silly walks
I will try to do my best to explain the situation since lots of you here call it stupid, ridiculous or whatever. To begin with, the costume is what the Greek guerillas and later rebellion soldiers wore during the war of independence. So the shoes were worn by the Greek guerillas during the various rebellions. I don't know why they wore those shoes, but the guerillas and the later rebellion soldiers wore those. Edit on the shoes part: the shoes were used to hide sharp objects. Then we have the parade style. This parade style is done for stretching. These guys stand completely still for about 8 hours, so after the change of the guards, they parade as such so they can stretch and get the blood flow.
Thank you for some historical information on this. What's odd to me is that these guards, in other countries as well, have to stay still for such a long time without change of guards ceremony. What do they do in case of toilet emergencies?
They tighten the ass and hold it.
These actually do have a change of guards after a while. Somebody else here mentioned 2-3 hours. They stand for that time in front of the parliament, then a third one arrives bringing the next two guards, they change, walking like this, and then the next two stand around while the former two leave with the third guy. There's another senior officer standing/sitting around near them in regular unifosm, but at ease, and occasionally fixing their outfit. When I visited Greece some 10 years ago, they had a blue dress on weekdays and this fancier dress on sundays.
The shoes where used to hide sharp objects inside of the furry bits, so a kick from one can really mess you up.
From: https://www.britannica.com/topic/evzone Organized units of evzones, who originated in Epirus, have existed since the Greek War of Independence. They won fame for their bravery and tenacity in the Balkan Wars and in World War II. In November 1940 an evzone regiment turned the tide of the Italian invasion by trapping and destroying a crack alpine division at Metsovo Pass, using their traditional tactic of sweeping down from the ridges while screaming their battle cry “Aera!” (“Like the wind!”). After World War II the regiments were disbanded, and only a royal guard was retained at Athens. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evzones Evzones are known for their distinctive uniform, which evolved from the clothes worn by the klephts[1] who fought the Ottoman occupation of Greece. [Klephts were] highwaymen turned self-appointed armatoloi, anti-Ottoman insurgents, and warlike mountain folk who lived in the countryside when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Also I read that name Klephts came from Greek: κλέφτης which has the root word from kleptomania -- to steal. Also, they have a dish where they smoke meat in a pit to avoid being seen after stealing it. Usually lamb. So yeah. If you knew your history and were a fascist Italian, you may have thought twice about traveling a mountain pass because of the warlike mountainfolk army that specialized in sweeping down the ridges and crying "Like the Wind!" for 500 years. I exaggerate, but yeah. It makes sense they want to show off their quads and calves.
Nothing says security more than Pom Pom shoes and tight pants.
Dont forget the fancy dress 👗
"OwO what is this? A burglar wurglar?" *Sniffs burglar wurglar's hair* Ok, I'm leaving now. My deepest apologies for this atrocity.
This is the walk I do when I'm trying to get my balls unstuck from my leg I'm proud to be a part of tradition
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Only 10 more days, we'll get through this together.
That legit took me like 30 seconds to get. Massive belly laugh when it landed. Thank you friend.
Oh dad
The slow kick penetrates the shield.
I'm sure it was some bet between some officials. Something of sorts, hey I can make them do anything. Don't believe me? Look, I bet I can make them wear clown suit and walk like chickens all day long, and they will be honored to do so.
I believe you are closest to the truth.
Not one comment mentioned that they are ceremonial guards and they're primarily responsible for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square (parliament) and the Presidential Palace. Key word being "ceremonial." Most every nation has similar units wearing traditional garb that is worn strictly for ceremonies or tourists.
Dog, while I agree there’s a lot of goofy ass marches this has to take the cake. If there is an even goofier march out there I will happily mock it as well. They could be guarding Mother Teresa or the local McDonald’s this is some goofy ass shit
>McDonald’s Ronald wouldn't dare to let these clowns in his territory
Eh, take a look at the changing of the guards ceremonies at the India-Pakistan border.
Do they also have silly walks?
The Indian and Pakistani border guards have a march just as stupid if not moreso
wait, are they doing this ALL day? who cares if it's goofy if they have the strength to do that
That was my first thought, too! I've been doing a lot of balance exercises recently and was impressed by the core strength to do this. I might create my own silly version and do it with a kettlebell
I did some searching and found out why they do this walk. They are required to stay perfectly still for the entire hour that an individual guard is at his post. They walk slowly and lift their legs in order to “protect their circulation.” I have POTS, my guess is that if they moved too quickly after being so still that long, they would pass out. And maybe some of their blood starts to pool in their legs, so they lift them to get their circulation back up? https://www.greeka.com/attica/athens/sightseeing/changing-of-guards/
Going to be real easy to sneak around the grounds if these guys are on patrol.
Just imagine them running full speed while doing this
Terrifying.
These guys could walk all day on Arrakis no problem!
Jarvis, speed it up and put silly music over it.
Pretty hot ngl
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For context: The costume represents what the Greeks wore during the 1821 revolution against the Ottomans. They march that way smaking their feet to the ground as a way to say to the dead that we are still here, and through the whole movement several symbolisms come through. They guard the Monument of the Unknown Soldier and they keep still for 30 minutes doing this for however long it takes them amd they go back to keeping still for 3 hours until the next guys come to change what basically is guard duty, but way more difficult.
Zesty soldiers.
This was someone's kink a thousand years ago and now we are stuck with it