Hate Politics and Exercise

I’ve often been curious why the sport of Parkour doesn’t seem to relate to politics, I’ve read the David Belle book ‘Parkour’ (French) and, he often talks about that things shouldn’t be about politics, and is very anti politics.  I further went to a Frank Turner Gigg for New Years, finding out Frank was very anti-politics himself.  I find it curious because I get very into their philosophies, and what they are about, and found they actually make allot of political sense, which is a bit ironic really.  But it kind of dawned on me watching Question Time (BBC program) when one person asked ‘are poor people fat’, and what got me was, ‘what people thought the solution was!’  People talked about diet, education, supermarkets, but no one really talked about David Belle’s philosophy, and that’s when it got me how David Belle’s philosophy doesn’t fit the political model.

In case you are not familiar with David Belle he is a French celebrity Parkour practitioner, who developed the sport through the teachings of his Father.  His father had spent a lot of time in the Vietnam jungle as a young man, and who had his life disrupted by the war in Vietnam.  His father understood the jungle, he developed an ability to climb, and when his life was turned upside down he learnt about human spirit.  He had this kind of thinking trust on him, and eventually settled back in France into a career in fire-fighting.  David his son lived in a place called Lisses, Paris, a place filled with concrete 60’s architecture.  This is where David developed Parkour understanding that we have this innate ability to climb, of which we are well designed for, much like a cheetah is designed for running.  David took this philosophy and, built it into his concrete environment.  Where once we used to climb trees, and jump from tree to tree, he saw concrete buildings as the trees, and jumped from building to building.  He climbed lampposts, and made short runs in-between jumps, just doing what we are designed to do.  The result is stylistic, and is part of Luc Beeson films in particular District 13 (Banlieue 13).  However politics just has this inherent nanny state element that completely destroys this concept.  I see people looking for the solution to these problems in politics, and politics just can’t do anything other than work as a nanny solution.  They can tell us to watch our diet, look at what supermarkets are feeding us, recommend physical education.  But after all this politics can’t do the exercise for us, it’s a external solution, when the solution is within us.  Politics just doesn’t touch our natural being, and it would be offensive if it did.

I think we can learn from stepping out of politics, and becoming aware we are a product of our surroundings.  We need to be a bit more natural, and less worried by ourselves, less worried about injuries and, let our bodies adapt, learn to eat and, do what we want.

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This post was written by colin