Are all traceurs, like, communists or something? lolololol
Written by Hopscotch
This is a topic I first started thinking about around the time Bao wrote his blog post entitled “Get Money, Get Paid.” That phrase struck me, as it seemed to me to contain everything that parkour is and should be- a wholly capitalist statement. Why, then, do the practitioners of the discipline seem to condone such an attitude of altruism in their social interactions, while promoting an opposite attitude of individualism in their personal endeavors? Does such a duality exist, or is it merely an illusion? This is my opinion on the matter after MUCH thought. Please note that this is basically my attempt to reconcile my two main philosophical beliefs, which before now had seemed to contradict each other: Capitalism and the parkour philosophy of “altruism,” which can essentially be boiled down to: “be strong to be useful.” If you’d like to point out flaws in my reasoning, please do. I have no doubt I’ve overlooked some things.
“Altruism (from Latin: alter: the other) is the deliberate pursuit of the interests or welfare of others or the public interest.” - Wikipedia (Click "Read More" to continue reading) The same article on altruism also had this to say: “altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor.” In other words, doing something for another at one’s own expense. The concept of “altruism” is ostensibly advocated by many of the practitioners of the discipline of parkour, and is reflected in such activities as the Leave No Trace Initiative, community teaching events, and most recently, the One Giant Leap global climate change jam. These are certainly admirable pursuits, yet it may be disagreeable to some to give up their time for nothing in return. Why should I waste my time cleaning up at NCSU when I don’t even go to school there? Why should I bother asking the owner of a property for permission to train there, when I can do it without permission? Why should I show respect to a police officer, even when he is kicking me off the property I didn’t ask permission to train at? Why should I display respect, candor, courage, and all those other character traits Duncan immortalized in different forms of QM? The answer is this: you do receive something in return. As a traceur, you are a representative of the discipline to the public. What you are, is parkour. If you are respectful, courteous and willing to do things for the community, then you will win credibility for the discipline as a whole in the eyes of the public. Whereas, if you are disrespectful, careless in your training (prone to injury) and belligerent when dealing with authority, then soon the entire discipline will be viewed that way. We will not be allowed to train where we want, if at all, because of a few individuals who wanted the short-term benefits of practicing parkour without the long-term investment that comes with the title of traceur.
So, is what we are doing for the community truly altruism? I think it is not. We are (or will eventually be) getting the all-important benefit of public awareness and respect. This is a slow gain, and requires much effort. It is a difficult process, since in our society negative occurrences often receive more publicity than positive ones. One death will receive more press than the millions of hours of practice collectively put in by traceurs worldwide, even though it is the carelessness of dying while training which contradicts the philosophy of parkour. It is the disrespectful practitioner who will be remembered, although it is his attitude which runs contrary to the attitude of the discipline and the intentions of the founders. For this reason, the battle for our “place in the sun,” as it were, will be a long and hard one. But it will be worth it, and we will get our returns in the form of freedom to be able to openly practice our discipline. For that reason, what we are doing cannot be called altruism. It is a wholly capitalist system, and I am fine with that.
Capitalism is doing work and receiving 100% of the benefit (as an individual or as a group with common interests, for example, the parkour community). This is the ideal.
Altruism is doing the same work and receiving no benefit. This is pointless, and condones making no effort because you receive the same reward either way. My question is this: How can a discipline in which you are clearly responsible for your own growth (get money, get paid), be said to condone altruism? Is it possible that there is a contradiction in the philosophy of conditioning and training the body for parkour (work=gain), and in the actual application of the discipline (work=waste)? I think not. Such a thing must surely be the result of a gross oversight on the part of the practitioner, rather than the philosophy of the discipline as a whole.
Let me phrase this a different way: If we knew as a community that acceptance was impossible, that we would never be able to train as we wished, no matter what positive things we did, if we could be certain of this, would we bother? After all, that would be true altruism. I wouldn’t lift a finger. Why waste my time and receive no benefit for it? It simply doesn’t make sense.
I wrote this to clarify what altruism really is, since I have noticed the word being thrown around a lot lately. In my opinion, parkour does not condone altruism. It condones helping others for a reward. That reward can come in many forms- experience, satisfaction at saving the life of another (how cool would that be?), public recognition of the legitimacy of the discipline- yet the same underlying concept is there: action begets reaction. This is more than a physical law, to me it is a moral precept. However, the reward cannot be something which has no value or meaning to the practice of parkour. As Duncan and Herbertiste have pointed out in their treatise on the negative effects of competition, money, fame, recognition, trophies, medals, glory or any other abstract measure of popularity used only to feed the ego are not proper rewards. Parkour has no ego, and that is why capitalism works for the system. True capitalism, like parkour, consists only of hard work and gain. Traceurs are like businesses: A good traceur has invested a lot of time and work for every small gain, and one who takes shortcuts or does not function at his full potential is sure to fall behind. A traceur who performs tasks for others without asking himself “why?” and without learning from each new experience of helping others has not done a useful thing- he is doing the task because he has been told to, and not because he has learned from or thought about the teachings of our practice. The only thing that promotes is the helplessness of the individual he was drawn to assist in the first place.
One last point: I consider capitalism in the marketplace to be competition in the same sense that an individual’s progress in parkour is a competition: an internal one. It is true that many businesses undertake certain strategies to undermine others (wal-mart for instance), yet in my opinion the best businesses are those that do well by maintaining excellence internally, without bothering about what other businesses are doing. Modern-day business practices have given capitalism somewhat of a bad name, but in essence there are few people who can be said to wholly endorse the ideals of capitalism as a belief system.
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About the AuthorNick Faircloth (Hopscotch) was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and has been training parkour since April of 2008. He quickly built a lasting friendship with the Charlotte branch of the NCParkour community while happily expanding his network of friends to include all the members of the NCParkour forum. He will be attending UNCW for a degree in Marine Biology and can't wait to continue his parkour education. |
written by Tomato on October 01, 2009
Great article, a thoroughly interesting read. I personally haven't used the word altruism for the same reason and have stuck to terms such as community service or volunteer opportunities. However, at the same time, I don't mind others using the term to address the activities and actions we do. Oversimplification or perversion of terms and definitions these days is extremely common. To pick a battle about one misstep of language is unnecessary. Communication of an idea is what I find to be the most important aspect. I believe that if the point gets across, then, for the most part, errors in between can be voided. I would say that the situation is comparable to trying to express the ideas of movement through words rather than moving. In short, though I agree with you that altruism isn't what we really are doing, it certainly is the quickest and easiest way to explain the principles of giving without EXPECTING receipt or any form of instant gratification.
written by hopscotch on October 01, 2009
That's a good point, but it wasn't my intent to pick a battle with the WORD altruism so much as the concept. I agree that what we are doing isn't altruism, and that's the only reason I was able to reconcile my beliefs.
I really appreciate that you took the time to think about this and formulate a response. I understand that it may seem confusing that I would pick this topic to write about, but in reality I think it was more therapeutic for me to write it than it will be for anyone else to read it
written by Tomato on October 02, 2009
Haha my mistake, I didn't mean that YOU were picking a battle. I just wished to point out that it was something none of us should seek; a war over words. It was a very clear blog, and your intentions were set forth well.
written by hopscotch on October 02, 2009
ah, I understand now. Thanks for the clarification
written by hopscotch on October 02, 2009
sorry, "Herbertiste" was a typo. I meant Hebertiste of course. No disrespect.
written by Ben Webster on October 02, 2009
Nick this is a well written article but I would have to disagree. See, the majority of the community service things that we do are unknown to anyone, especially the general public. The only people that knew about our leave no trace are the people who read the thread on the website, no one else was aware of it. When we built that park, we chose not to affiliate ourselves with parkour, and just appear as a group of friends that were there to help out. The only people who know about the community service work that my roommate and I do in pullen park are the two people who supervise all park activities, no one else is aware of it. No one knows about the guy that I just met randomly, who was crying because he couldnt get to work and was going to get fired. I decided to drive him 30 minutes out of my way to get him there on time, and yet again, I revcieved no award whatsoever. The list goes on and on both for myself and for many other people on this forum. I guess if you want to argue that we feel better about ourselves is a reward, then you are correct, but since when has feeling good been something for personal gain?
See, in the end that is the point. I couldnt care less if people know about all this stuff. The important thing is that it helped someone. It is that persuit of better welfare of the surrounding community that is one of the reasons why I believe in the parkour philosophy so thoroughly. I personally, despise capitalism. Most people in america will disagree with me, and may even take the time to list of a couple hundred reasons why capitalism is superior to every other form of economic structure. I personally believe in helping people. Capitalism has gotten a bad rap because of all of the things that it has done, prioritizing greed over need, and the few over the many. I am sorry, I know that I have drifted away from the point of your article, but I will always hate capitalism, the word itself infuriates me, because of the things that it has done, especially to latin america, africa, and southeast asia. The fact that the WTO is a major organization in the united states makes me sick. Fuck the "white man's burden." Sorry for the anger, im not mad at you, I just really hate capitalism.
Sorry for the rant, but again, that is probably the difference between our backgrounds. I am used to many people not accepting me, no matter what I do, because of my religous beliefs. It doesnt matter if I was the greatest person in the world or a rapist, in the end I am still a godless atheist with no morals, who will be cast into the eternal hellfire, just because of my religious beliefs. So I guess if you were used to doing things without it being able to change the "moral direction of your soul," then doing something while getting no reward doesnt seem like such a farfetched idea.
written by hopscotch on October 02, 2009
haha I am a godless atheist as well, so I know EXACTLY where you are coming from on that one. I'm also from an extremely low-class family, so I can see why people would hate capitalism. And I hate all the negative things you just mentioned as well (except greed before need, which to me isn't necessarily negative), and that is why I tried to make it clear towards the end that capitalism as a system of beliefs and capitalism as it is put in practice today are not necessarily the same thing. But in the end, I still believe in capitalism as a set of moral guidelines, which starts by valuing the individual over the multitude.
I'm going to assume that you believe that the parkour philosophy can, by definition, never fit seamlessly with a capitalist philosophy- you believe there will always be contradictions. I, on the other hand, think it can. Is either one of us wrong? Of course not- the reason is that parkour's philosophy- for that matter, all philosophy- is interpretive. We each get something different from it. To me, what we call "altruism," isn't actually. To you, it is, or should be. I'm fine to agree to disagree on that point, because to be honest it's a waste of time to tell ANYONE what to believe. You know what I mean.
written by jeremy- on October 02, 2009
Hopscotch wrote: "As a traceur, you are a representative of the discipline to the public. What you are, is parkour. If you are respectful, courteous and willing to do things for the community, then you will win credibility for the discipline as a whole in the eyes of the public."
Why is it that we have to be respectful and courteous to be a traceur? Why not have general mindfulness for all things? Why is it that we have to represent ourselves as a collective to be a good human being? Why not do what we enjoy and be a mindful, respectful, courteous human being. Because then what you do does not matter anymore, it's how you do it. Why not just be mindful, courteous and respectful?
written by hopscotch on October 02, 2009
that's true, but I felt the need to specify because this is a website dedicated to parkour. It would be wonderful indeed if everyone represented themselves that way all the time, but it's not the case. I'd rather someone be mindful, respectful and courteous because they are conscientious of the way they represent parkour, than not to be that way at all. I'm not saying the end wholly justifies the means in that it is okay to fake good qualities, but I wouldn't want someone who calls himself a traceur to negatively represent the discipline either.
You don't have to be mindful, respectful and courteous to be a traceur (I suppose) but it certainly won't help you at all, and it will probably make things much harder in the long run.
written by Ben Webster on October 02, 2009
Nick, I understand what you are saying exactly. Just when anyone says pro-capitalist stuff I go Dr. Jeckel/Mr. Hyde. I was not meaning to attack you in any way. I do not support capitalism in the same way that I do not support religion. Both have some pros and the general majority of people within each group are very good people who havent directly harmed anyone. However, both have done such horrible things in the name of them that I can no longer support either. FOR ANYONE READING THIS, I am not trying to say anything bad about your religion, just this is one of the many reasons why I do not affiliate with any of them. Capitalism has caused many democratically elected governments to be overthrown and has starved hundreds of millions of people. Anyone who disapproves of capitalism is quickly painted as a totalitarian communist (which I despise almost as much as capitalism). I would rather live with nothing than rape as many third-world countries as possible.
The difference between our beliefs on this is that I am an idealist, and you are a realist, nothing more, nothing less.
"all philosophy- is interpretive"
I love that statement. Anyways, while most people will do their community service for some sort of gain, it does not always have to be that way. You just gave me a fantastic idea. Thank you for giving it to me.
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