Parkour and society

[adamxxx]

movement / parkour is supposed to be the natural way of movement for us human beings if not for technology in my opinion.
if we observe children, it's in their nature to climb, jump, and run around! - it's in their nature to experiment their physical ability and have fun along the way!

.. as they grow older, the surroundings; parents, teachers, the government! tells them,
"no, dont act like a kid",
"dont do this",
"you have to stop playing and study hard!",
"you have to get good education to get a good job",
"you have to get a good job to have a good life.."

.. we start to live the life of what people tell us what is right and how we should live our life as we grow older! we are not living our life, but living what people are saying 'the right life'.
and most people dont realize this..

there is no one way to live your life!

you can not go to school and still live a rich successful life...! (think about it)

.. what i'm trying to say is, we(traceurs/freerunners) are simply living our life! and doing what is natural for human beings physically; to climb, jump, run, swim, etc.

but for the public who view us as 'monkeys' think they're the ones who are the normal ones.
"why climb when there's an elevator?"
"why walk, run, vault, jump? when you can drive a car?"

technology has taken away our identity as 'normal'. if it hasnt exist in this century, we would still be climbing, running, jumping the streets to get to school, work...

so, which is the normal one? people doing parkour; creating they're own path? or people walking on walkways; created by the government to tell us where to walk, where to go up, where to down, where to go left, where to go right...., u get the picture;) .............

these are my opinions. i apologize for any harsh comments! lets live OUR life! and be 'NORMAL'

[Mafio]

I think thats technology now a days. try to make everything easier and simpler which means we dont have to do anything which is hard or required any work. Thats why people start going obese and the only thing they do is wake up,go to work,watch tv, sleep and the same cycle over and over again. They dont do anything with their lifes. But as you said we try to stop that cycle and brake out of this never end chain. We do something different and that make us better and special. However in this society being different means that you are weird and stupid.
Just do what you want with your lifes. Enjoy and be happy everyday.
Train Safe
Michał

[bateson]

i think your thinking too much about the rong things lol

if people call us "monkeys" then take it as a compliment i wish i could move as efficantly as one

but also the word normal has defently missused normal-come from the word norm which is a rule of sociaty, and there for the people who are never going anywere themselfs a normal, maby what tacures/trasusues do it being natural, getting back to out ...."real" roots

but yea o a whole you seem to have a very, almost conspirecsy filled view of life briten up lol

[playhater]

Erm I think when people say monkeys they do mean it as a compliment anyway lol, but like it's when people say other things like maybe for instance that we're weird for doing what we do then that's when they don't understand so they're just being offensive and yeah I agree with Michal it's all about efficiency so they just take the car or train or whatever because it's easier, like imagine carrying a weeks worth of shopping home or whatever or driving home with it in your boot it's so much easier, I guess most people just want easy lifes

[itbeme]

I think that people have been brought up that way for decades now, maybe even century's, its stupid how there are set paths. Id like to see how people moved when they were at the basics, before we had shoes, houses, cars, concrete. people have gotten so much weaker to be fair.

[aarenlainey]

Parkour has been associated with death-defying building-to-building jumps. I remember BBC also had a feature documentary years ago too, and when I watch them doing Parkour,I can’t help but admire the athletic prowess.I did like to see how people moved when they were at the basics,before we had shoes, houses, cars, concrete. people have gotten so much weaker to be fair.

[David Bray]

Well this really is the core of society's 'fear' of parkour. What has to be understood though, is that humanity has changed. We entered the ring as hardy hunters but now we have essentially devolved to be co-dependant on technology.
Take me, for instance. I do parkour and have a fairly capable body. I imagine i could survive quite well in hunter-gatherer culture (or lack thereof), but i am also criplingly attached to my electronic life. My internet crashed over the weekend and i realised just what level of hold it has taken on my life.
I couldn't do my uni work, some of my creative work, some of my buying, and some of my research and it was driving me insane.
Hopefully, i can crack that and be a parkour god.

[Oldboy]

"if we observe children, it's in their nature to climb, jump, and run around! - it's in their nature to experiment their physical ability and have fun along the way!

.. what i'm trying to say is, we(traceurs/freerunners) are simply living our life! and doing what is natural for human beings physically; to climb, jump, run, swim, etc."

I was looking for a thread in which to put this short video, it's part of a lecture by a British philosopher called Alan Watts who was a populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. It's animated by Sounthpark creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and talks about the analogy of life with a a journey, and how people are always rushing to get to the end.

Alan Watts - Life and music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeRZKC27RtU


Some members of the public seem to have a positive view of Parkour and look genuinely pleased to see people training, but there are others who appear to be dismissive. I can think of at least several people within my circle of friends who would also be dismissive of Parkour.

I think it's safe to say that everyone would like to be able to have the strength, skills and dexterity that traceurs display, yet most people are unwilling to do the training, eat the right food and build slowly toward their goals. It's much easier to stuff your face with McDonalds and live your dreams through the characters of the latest Hollywood CGI block buster, or on a games console. Perhaps when they see someone practicing parkour then 'their own' lack of physical fitness is reflected and they react defensively by dismissing it.

I have some friends who are completely reliant on cars, and when I tell them I am going to walk somewhere they offer me a lift. When I tell them that "I want to walk" some of them do not seem to understand why anyone would want to walk. They think that I am being polite and refusing a lift so as not to trouble them, they start to insist and get a bit upset when I have to emphasise strongly that 'I do not want a lift'. The fact is that I want to walk because I enjoy it, some people just don't understand the concept of exercise. I often wonder if they were driving along the road and saw a friend jogging, would they try and offer them a lift? It would be virtually impossible to explain to them the concept of taking a short-cut over a wall, if there were steps further along.

People identify with the system within which they live, most will come to depend upon it and will fight to defend their system because they cannot comprehend a way of surviving outside of it. An indigenous tribe may travel on foot or by animal power, their food comes from the land, water from a stream and warmth from a fire. Most will defend their system with their lives because that's what that they know. In a modern industrialised western society people drive cars to shops, get their food from a tin, water from a tap and warmth from central heating, they too will defend their system to the death because it's what they know.

[GR33N]

People identify with the system within which they live, most will come to depend upon it and will fight to defend their system because they cannot comprehend a way of surviving outside of it.

isnt that from the matrix?

[Oldboy]

People identify with the system within which they live, most will come to depend upon it and will fight to defend their system because they cannot comprehend a way of surviving outside of it.

isnt that from the matrix?

Yes, well spotted, it appears to be very similar but I didn't intentionally steal it from The Matrix, I stole it from this guy in the video below. He is an environmental activist called Derrick Jensen, he has some very interesting and controversial ideas, though non of them are really directly related to Parkour or this thread. Maybe he originally got the idea of 'people becoming dependent upon the system in which they live' from The Matrix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSa9tyuI ... re=related

Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
[Neo's eyes suddenly wander towards a woman in a red dress]
Morpheus: Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?

[GR33N]

i dont know about Neo, but i was looking at the woman in the red dress
im sure NONE of you thought id be that shallow xD

[David Bray]

2 Words Gr33n: Dem Hips