Is jogging right wing?

My, aren't we late to the party!

“Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the Right”

Aren't performance and individualism good things? This just makes me more sick about the French. F'ing socialists, if they don't want to run, then they can "walk and think" all they want. Let's see how far that gets them.

Ok Gump.

Jogging or hard training? Realizing your personal strengths, be they sports or intellectual pursuits, and attacking them with determination in order to be the best you can be is certainly right wing. Discussing things in theory, having never lived them, is another wing entirely.

My sense is that running is actually left wing because it requires free access to publicly maintained trails, parks, and roads. In fact, some of my deepest seeded leftest beliefs come from my experience as a runner. Running forced me to ask questions such as this: Why is it illegal for me to run in so many places in a country that values its freedom so much? People have horded an incredible amount of our country with no provision for any public use and to me that seems wrong.

this is a completely arbitrary argument. running could jsut as easily be called performance art - watching people tap into their physical and mental strengths. people (especially other runners) can be affected profoundly by watching a race or participating in a race.

It's certainly no more arbitrary than saying that the ideals behind jogging--individualism, perfomance, and self-improvement--are right wing.

googlespy wrote:

It's certainly no more arbitrary than saying that the ideals behind jogging--individualism, perfomance, and self-improvement--are right wing.

except that those are decidedly left wing attributes, esp. individualism. right wingers are very docile towards authority.

challenging authority and authority figures has always been a left wing / hippyish attribute.

right wingers are followers. when jogging became cool they would follow along to be part of the 'in' crowd.

Distance running is essentially built on conservative beliefs: a good work ethic, individuality and not relying on a group, the realization that you aren't handed anything for free and that you have to work hard at it, the understanding that in order to overcome any talent that someone else might have and that you don't (i.e. being born into privilege) you will have to outwork them.

However, as was pointed out, running also does incorporate some traditionally left-wing ideals: care for the environment, and many of us regularly run on public land and want these areas kept pristine in all of their grandeur.

But, as a whole, I'd consider long-distance running to rely on the aforementioned conservative foundation.

chrisrun wrote:

Distance running is essentially built on conservative beliefs: a good work ethic, individuality and not relying on a group, the realization that you aren't handed anything for free and that you have to work hard at it, the understanding that in order to overcome any talent that someone else might have and that you don't (i.e. being born into privilege) you will have to outwork them.

However, as was pointed out, running also does incorporate some traditionally left-wing ideals: care for the environment, and many of us regularly run on public land and want these areas kept pristine in all of their grandeur.

But, as a whole, I'd consider long-distance running to rely on the aforementioned conservative foundation.

The final answer is...Jogging is for Conservatives and Running is for liberals!

The Sarkozy quote is a typical rightwinger up=down, night=day

jumbling of the facts.

We humans are distinguished among other animals for two abilities:

Linguistic ability and running long distances over land.

Both are evolutionary adaptations to more effective collective behavior,

namely social organization and hunting.

So running, in particular, is at root a collective enterprise.

Obviously Sarkozy never ran on a cross-country team, or he would know this.

As for the canard about conservatives being all about independence and self-reliance. Maybe according to Al Capone.

What we see from conservatives today is just one big bank heist.

With other people's kids doing the dying.

Tie up the govt and use Bu$hco to plunder public treasury, land and lives.

That's the conservative MO, and it's the opposite of self-reliance.

Running, on the other hand, is real.

But to see reality, you gotta stop drinking that Kool-Aid after your run.

dude- sarkozy is from the right wing party of france and *advocates* individualism and performance. this guy actually faces criticism from the crazy left for jogging.

since when is individualism left wing? 'progressivism' is all about sacrificing individual freedoms (free speech, religion, your paycheck) for the broader 'social good' ('minority rights' [a self-contradictary term since the smallest minority is the individual], campaign finance reform, re-distribution of wealth, nanny state, smoking bans, fatty food bans, affirmative action etc. ect.).

a left wing approach to the individualism and performance inherrent to track and field would be to blame webb's successes on his inherrent powers of being white and middle class, complain about how many poor minorities don't have access to the kinds of schooling webb had access to, to give out medals for everyone, to encourage that faster runners be handicapped for having better genes so that everyone had a 'fair' competition.

Sooooo wrote:

The final answer is...Jogging is for Conservatives and Running is for liberals!

Its the opposite. Liberals are puhc's so are joggers. They like the social aspect and celebrating the accomplishements of every participants - what bunch of crap.

Runners are elitist individualist bad-asses - thats more to the right

liberalism brought us the celebration of the politically correct oprah winfrey 6 hour marathon

yikers wrote:

since when is individualism left wing? 'progressivism' is all about sacrificing individual freedoms (free speech, religion, your paycheck) for the broader 'social good' ('minority rights' [a self-contradictary term since the smallest minority is the individual], campaign finance reform, re-distribution of wealth, nanny state, smoking bans, fatty food bans, affirmative action etc. ect.).

a left wing approach to the individualism and performance inherrent to track and field would be to blame webb's successes on his inherrent powers of being white and middle class, complain about how many poor minorities don't have access to the kinds of schooling webb had access to, to give out medals for everyone, to encourage that faster runners be handicapped for having better genes so that everyone had a 'fair' competition.

you have drunk your fill of kool aid for a full lifetime!

i would argue that all your points are actually goals of conservatism. All have come about during years of conservative control.

for years 'liberals' were blasphemed for being anti-authority and narcissistic, now we are supposedly full of group think?

think for yourself and live and let live, thats the liberal mantra

do what your authority figure tells you to and dont dare disagree, thats the conservative mantra

I thought she ran 4:18 and "Puff" Daddy ran 4:20 with the help of Salzar.

George Bush is a much better runner than both of them I think hes run 17s for 5k - runner - while Spitzer ran 14:30 for 2 miles - jogger.

it is certainly fair to say that the republicans have not lived up the the goals of conservatism, though in many cases the democrats have not lived up to their goals either. goal of helping the 'disenfranchized': their solution was welfare. did it help? no.

it's not like liberals tolerate dissent any more than conservatives do. your notion of 'follow the leader' being conservative is pretty misguided. just ask joe lieberman.