The Personal Fitness Is Political

I've found the line I'm going to take the next time I get into an argument with a lefty about anything health-related:

President Sarkozy has fallen foul of intellectuals and critics who see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.

...

“Is jogging right wing?” wondered Libération, the left-wing newspaper. Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his “undignified” pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, and other great men, said Mr Finkelkraut.

“Western civilisation, in its best sense, was born with the promenade. Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation.”

He went on to deplore other such "right-wing" activities as treating sewage, not loading your gun before you clean it, and avoiding herpes, none of which have anything to do with meditation either.

Things get fun in the comments:

Jogging is an addiction like a drug addiction. If some people like jogging, so be it. If some people like pot or some other substance, so be it. Myself, I don't do either, but who am I to prevent other people from doing what they like and which harms no one else?

Frankly, I find drug users better company than joggers.

bernarda, Paris, France

So do I, but only because joggers won't give you a "desperation handjob" in return for a crack fix.

And then there's this guy:

When the officers run, the troops worry... A still valid principle.

Ronnie, Paris, FRANCE

I think that last one made me have a stroke.

I may be missing the point of all this, but I think what they're trying to say is that all the fat, lazy Americans who don't exercise and weigh themselves with livestock scales are really...progressives?

Via Hot Air.

posted by AndrewR at 11:52 PM

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