Nicolas Sarkozy
the very act of le jogging – or le running as it is now more fashionable to call it – is a cultural humiliation
the Sarkozy jog is in conformity with the principles of the French Revolution, and the equality and brotherhood of man.
Bravo, Sarkozy – from one jogger to another
There are some people I know who are not so keen on Nicolas Sarkozy, the new President of France. Some prudes have been dismayed by the way he turned up at a press conference in a state of apparent alcoholic intoxication. Some think it a bit off that he tried to grab the steering wheel at the recent European summit, and change the fundamental principles of the EU Treaty.
Some people find him altogether too Tiggerish and bumptious. I have, I confess, been so far in a state of glorious detachment on the Sarkozy issue – until yesterday morning, when I read that he was once again under attack from the French intellectuals, and I found my sword leaping from its scabbard in his defence.
In the cafés of the Left Bank, they have fastened on what they regard as the single most objectionable and Right-wing aspect of the Sarkozy agenda – and what do you think it is? Do they object to his views on immigration? Are they worried about his plans to make French universities more competitive?
Quite possibly; but their feelings on these questions are anaemic next to their central charge against the new regime. The most appalling thing about the Sarkozy presidency, says Professor Alain Finkelkraut, a leading French philosopher and veteran of the 1968 manifestations, is an event that takes place every morning. The President of France goes jogging! Choc horreur! He exposes the presidential knees to the entire world, says Finkelkraut, and it is extremely undignified.
Worst of all, say these heirs of Sartre and Saussure, the very act of le jogging – or le running as it is now more fashionable to call it – is a cultural humiliation. It is, in the first place, an offence to national honour, they say, that the President of the Republic should totter back into the Elysée Palace looking like a sweat-drenched miniature version of Sylvester Stallone.
But as you would expect of French philosophers, they make a deeper point. Jogging, they say, waving their Gitanes angrily at the camera, is a Right-wing activity. It is all about the management of the body; it is about performance, and individualism, and the triumph of the will.
It is no wonder, they say, that physical jerks have generally been associated with fascist regimes; and above all they believe that by staggering around in his NYPD T-shirt, the French President is making a tragic act of obeisance to America.
François Mitterrand did not jog, they say. Even when he played golf, he never allowed himself to be pictured on the course. Jacques Chirac is a man of hyperkinetic energy, but he would never have taken his trousers off in public, run up and down, and asked the French people to take him seriously.
As for Charles de Gaulle, he moved with the stately undulation of a giraffe, and never broke into so much as a trot.
The Sarkozy jog, say his critics, is a sad imitation of the habits of American presidents, and a capitulation to the défi Américain as bad as the influx of Hollywood movies, and if you doubt the seriousness of their attack, you should have a look at the Left-wing newspaper Libération, and the French political blogs; and that is why it is now time for all jogging politicians to come to Sarkozy’s aid.
I speak as one who rises every morning and makes the pavement echo to the slap of my tread, and I have no doubt that, on purely aesthetic grounds, I would face the strictures of Prof Finkelkraut. It was not long ago that one of my friends and colleagues told me that he was quite put off his breakfast by the sight of me going round the local park at the speed, he claimed, of an elderly hippopotamus.
But I am not deterred by such jibes, nor by the accusation that jogging is Right-wing. Of course it is Right-wing, in the sense that the facts of life are generally Right-wing. The very act of forcing yourself to go for a run, every morning, is a highly conservative business.
There is the mental effort needed to overcome your laziness. There is the pain in the calves and the ache in the lungs, and the keen sense that everyone is looking at you and sniggering.
And then slowly the endorphins start to flood into your brain, and the effort gives way to reward, and the deferred pleasure arrives, and you come back home feeling you could bite a tiger – and, above all, that nothing else you do that day can be quite as painful and exhausting.
And plenty of Left-liberals have realised this, and go jogging as well. One thinks of Jimmy Carter, who famously collapsed while out on a run, so eager was he to attain those endorphins; and then there was the late Roy Jenkins, who was once spotted sneaking out of his chauffeured limo in the Brussels twilight, and briefly puffing, in a tracksuit, through the Bois de la Cambre.
And is it not sad, in retrospect, that Roy should have been so furtive in his exercise? The whole point about President Sarkozy’s running is that he is actually putting himself publicly through the same hell as the rest of us. Far from being a surrender to American values, the Sarkozy jog is in conformity with the principles of the French Revolution, and the equality and brotherhood of man.
With every weary plod he is parading his mortality, exposing his vulnerability, and sharing with the rest of the human race the via dolorosa of the morning stagger. One day, as we all know, he will be able to run no more; one day he will cark it like Jim Fixx, the jogging pioneer.
But until such time we should salute his willingness to expose those knobbly knees to public derision, and we should challenge our Labour masters to get out of their Zil limousines and do likewise.
65 Comments
MPs have been accused of flouting the smoking ban – and even sneaking cigarettes in the Commons toilets.
Although it is not illegal to smoke in the Palace of Westminster, both Houses decided to ban it from Sunday – the same time as the rest of England.
But Labour’s Betty Williams told MPs the ban was “already being abused” and offered to show Commons leader Harriet Harman where people were smoking.
MPs joined in with cries of “division toilets” and “toilets”.
Mrs Williams…said she had seen “three incidents” of people smoking in areas where they should not since the ban had been introduced.
“I don’t see why I should have to go out through a door and walk into a cloud of smoke when there are four designated smoking areas,” she told the BBC News website.
But the Conwy MP…said it was a “weakness” of the Parliamentary smoking ban that it was not backed up by fines or other sanctions.
The Commons authorities declined to comment on what penalties MPs and peers might face if they were caught smoking.
It has been suggested they could be reported to their party Whips, who are responsible for maintaining discipline.
From the current BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6273830.stm
Four smoking areas, no fines and just a ticking off for breaking the rules.
One law for MPs and another for 13 million Beryls.
Our MPs are disgusting hypocrites, Boris.
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Steven_L said:
Coming to think of it, what do Ken Livingstones knees look like? I’ve just had a thorough search around ‘Google Images’ and I’m still none the wiser
Excellent point, Steven_L. I demand that red Ken shows us his knees so that we can decide whether or not he’s fit to run London. We know that Boris has two very mayor-like knees as he’s been open and honest enough to display them many times.
If, as I suspect, Red Ken has puny, decidely non-mayoral knees, we should be told.
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Boris, my old blancmange, (by the way I was in London today, but didn’t see you there, were you having a day off?) it is not the going out running that I object to in the habits of your new found friend, it is the coming back.
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Pleased to see his Grace on a rare outing.It must be gratifying for Boris to see how admired he is across the blogasphere .They are all calling his name
BORIS BORIS they say SAVE LONDON
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liberty- I suspect, Red Ken has puny, decidely non-mayoral knees, we should be told.
Liberty I should imagaine that years of kneeling before visiting terrorists and foreign dictators must have taken its toll on the pink supplness that we admire in a knees.
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Vicus, you were in the wrong part of London today.
At first Boris Whittington met with little success, and was tempted to return home. However, jogging out of the city, whilst climbing Highgate Hill from Archway, he heard the Bow Bells of London ringing and sending him a message:
Turn again, Boris,
Once Lord Mayor of London!
Turn again, Boris,
Twice Lord Mayor of London!
Turn again, Boris,
Thrice Mayor of London!
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newmania said:
years of kneeling before visiting terrorists and foreign dictators must have taken its toll on the pink supplness that we admire in a knee.
You are so right, newmania. it’s the knees that have it.
No God up in the sky
No devil beneath the seas
Could do the job that Boris will do,
Of bringing Ken to his knees
Knees are the keys to London for Boris!
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As they have been for so many men before him. A folded copy of the Telegraph should offer some cushioning.
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Back to Liberty’s comments about smoking in the lavatory’s. I was told by my MP that the place is like being at school. Does the “House” also have bike sheds?
If so will they also become a hotbed of illecit smoking?
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Cranmer
For discussion on the mayor topic go over to:
http://www.boris-johnson.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=89&page=1#Item_15
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I was told by my MP that the place is like being at school (Angelina)
Living in England is now like being at school.
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Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss, not a French linguist.
And Boris, bring back the Routemasters, design new ones and rid us of most of the bendy buses.
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His Grace would like to apologise to Melissa, and will visit the indicated thread.
Blessings,
+Cranmer
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Angie … I don’t think it’s smoking that goes on behind the H of C bike sheds … but there’s me believing Private Eye cartoons again.
“Living in England is now like being at school” … and it ain’t Eton!
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AP-Yes I do read the Private eye. You have me Sussed. Perhaps it’s best we do not know what goes on behind the bike shed’s the thought of some who may be concerned could make one feel quite ill.
I don’t know much about Eton. My school was a horrible 1970′s concrete number which has now been knocked down. This would not have taken much as the inside walls where made of cardboard and the inmates had started on the demolition long before the school was officaly closed.
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Al Gore should try to affect change on his own country before attempting to become a global spokesperson. After all, that’s where the greed and god-damn right to drive where I want is worst.
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Awfully quiet around here…
Am I the only one that can’t get into the forum? I don’t mind being banned or e-ported back to Canuckistan, but either that or the forum is down.
[Ed: Forum should be ok now.....Monday 9 July]
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(writing from Chicago, USA) In terms of American presidents, it’s hard to say jogging is associated with either side. GW Bush jogs. Clinton jogged. The whole presidential-fitness emphasis began with Eisenhower, the most centrist of modern American presidents. After his heart attack(s), Dr. Paul Dudley White, his physician, got a bully pulpit to emphasize the health value of exercise.
Well, let me amend that. The public association of presidents with exercise began with Eisenhower, but Truman was famous for his brisk walks. These walks continued long after his presidency ended.
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nope, I can’t get in either. In fact, when I go to that page, nothing comes up at all.
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Yep, I can’t even see any source code: no contents at all. I emailed Melissa, we’ll see what happens.
@ Mike Kruger, I thought it was Teddy Roosevelt who was the famously physically active president? And Gore, of course, is a Marathoner (or was, along with one of his kids).
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Someone … can’t remember who … described Teddy Roosevelt as ‘that damned cowboy’. His exercise was leading the Rough Riders and shooting things, but not bear cubs.
Raincoaster … I do like ‘Canuckistan’, especially given certain Canadian government policies, I may have to steal that one.
But why do Americans tend to expect their presidents to be athletic hunting/shooting icons with less intelligence than themselves? Why this ‘Forest Gump for the White House’ mentality?
And what’s all this about Boris becoming Meyer? I didn’t even know he was Jewish. He doesn’t look Jewish.
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He doesn’t look Turkish either. It’s amazing what they can do with a bit of bleach and a clever dermatologist, eh?
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[Ed: Forum should be ok now.....Monday 9 July]
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“I don’t know much about Eton.” (Angelina)
I know quite a bit about it. People need to weigh up the Eton factor when deciding who they want to lead them in all areas of public life: that way Etonans may likewise consider before they send their own children there, and there is a chance the cycle can be broken.
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I think the idea that jogging is any wing is sad. If you take part in a public running event like a 10k or half marathon you may share the road with people you may strongly disagree with politically. However for that time these differences are put aside and you all share something you have in common. As such it is a unifier not a divider. God knows we could do with more things that bring people together.
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Accommodating themselves to the notion of the Presidential jogging (on whole I still marginally prefer Le Jogging to Le Running), will be an excellent lesson in national humility for the French people. Entirely in the spirit of the Revolution as you suggest – and I can do nothing but applaud M. Sarkozy’s courage in exposing himself (and them) to it by way of his knees.
Whether the British ought to be similarly exposed (in terms of what might be called Gordonian Jogging and the Gordonian knees) is a matter upon which I haven’t yet had quite the courage to decide.
On the whole I think probably not. We know quite enough about national humility as it is, don’t you think? We are taught it at least twice annually by the Australians, for a start. And then there’s Wimbledon…
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Still not working for me, Melissa.
Adam, you make a good point. I’m not very pro-American, but when I was in the Seattle Marathon I saw something that still moves me, years later. As we plodded around a corner, we saw a flatbed military truck with a group of soldiers in the back, all at full attention, saluting. “Wow,” I thought, “These Yanks really make you feel welcome.” But no; as we passed, they all shouted, in perfect American Military Shout (you’ve heard it in a million movies) “Go Sarge, GO!” and the tall, thin man next to me smiled and teared up a bit, so I guess that was Sarge.
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[Ed: Forum should be ok now.....Monday 9 July]
thanks muchly, Melissa. Working well from this end.
[ Not at all dmnyc ;D]
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Dear spammer: you are incompetent. Please apply for a position with the Labour Party immediately. Or steal Polly Toynbee’s column away from her; you can’t be any worse.
[Ed: zapped them]
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le jogging – Right Wing?
I suppose if it is equated with self-discipline then there is an element of truth.
Perhaps the Left Wingers will set up government money for someone else to jog on one’s behalf – allowing those for whom the exercise is completed vicariously, to sit their fat behinds in front of the TV, stuff themselves on pizza take-outs, and plan how to milk the country of even more hand-outs.
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Somebody’s waaaaay ahead of you on that. Check out the Carbon Trading Diet and Fat Offsets.
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God, not you again.
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It’s awful bad for your knees, Boris. Get on yer bike instead…
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Actually, I had no difficulty completing a marathon, but biking killed the cartilage in my knees. But what’s ultimately going to get us is some eedjut in a Hummer.
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joshua xfb
emma nhp
emma opm
joshua kdf
Because you are so inept in your occupation that it is impossible to deduce what you’re selling and further, since it’s obvious you’re so thick skinned you won’t go away; I propose a small competition to who you represent.
I must admit I’m torn. The persistence implies insurance but the IQ suggests something with horrible side-effects and consequently unlikely to be viagra.
So I reckon you’re an Amway salestron.
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Sorry:
competition to GUESS who you represent.
doh!
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Chinese herbal viagra. Betcha anything.
Also: still can’t get to the forum on IE or Firefox. That’s okay; they thought they could keep my people out of the White House, so we just set fire to the door.
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Pure Colombian is my guess, and we ain’t talking coffee, note the references to ‘white’, ‘good stuff’, ‘mind’, ‘need’ etc. Obviously mistaking what the boy Spliffy David said, and not realising that Boris maintained that he sneezed. Or perhaps it’s a person who gets really turned on by French knees.
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well, I was able to get into the forum briefly but now it’s gone again.
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Don’t understand why people are having problems with the forum. I’ve had none at all.
But dmnyc and raincoaster live across the pond. Perhaps the undersea information superhighways have been getting flooded with seawater. I’m not sure what happens when information collides with seawater. Something rather nasty, I imagine.
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I’ve had no forum problems, other than PaulD and Jack Target being overseas. If this was my site I’d be bureaucratic and refer them to their ISP helpdesk, but then I’ve had too much ‘customer service’ experience.
Anyway, back on topic,
< ‘…we should challenge our Labour masters to get out of their Zil limousines and do likewise. (Boris)<
Does this not apply to all of our political classes. Over in the smoking forum (and I’m too drunk to find the links) we’ve heard tales of EU ministers smoking in their offices in defiance of a ban. We’ve heard about the relative of a dead ex-MP lambasting the drinking culture in the Houses of Parliament. We’ve discussed in depth legislation banning pub-owners from allowing their customers to smoke, which exempts only one workplace that everyone enters by choice – the Palace of Westminster – from its’ provisions.
Whether or not our political masters want to jog is an irrelevance, I don’t recommend it myself, my Father worked with two keen joggers and both died of heart attacks in their 50′s. Surely we should be hounding MP’s to eat ’5 a day’ ‘Fairtrade’ ‘Sustainable’ fruit and beg, publish details of their food miles and carbon emissions, to submit to blood tests to prove they keep within 21 units of alcohol a week and to prove they don’t invest in corporations that go against their constant moralising.
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StevenL said: “I’ve had no forum problems,”
Haven’t been able to access the forum for about 5 days, but then I generally use ‘Firefox’ but have just found I can access it with IE.
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Turkey Twizzler said: Haven’t been able to access the forum for about 5 days, but then I generally use ‘Firefox’ but have just found I can access it with IE.
I’ve tried in both Firefox and IE but still no luck. I miss you guys.
But nobody likes a whiner so I shall hop right back on topic: I was walking back from my morning errands when I saw a man jogging by. I thought briefly, “I wonder if he sees this as a right wing activity” when suddenly he saw someone he knew and called out – in FRENCH! So maybe it’s more an act of Le Solidarity.
Or Le Coincidence.
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PaulD and Jack Target got deported? The things you miss when you can’t get to the forum!
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Yeah, Jack Target said something about Gordon Brown and PaulD was caught smoking in an enclosed alleyway.
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They’re going to love Barcelona.
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raincoaster, are you still having forum access problems?
I seem to have sorted mine out in a round about way – via the google cache. Don’t know if we were having the same problem but I would be happy to send along my solution if you want to try it.
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Can’t get to it even via Googlecache. I’m wondering if it’s got something to do with my virus scanner, which updates all the bloody time, you’d swear it was getting paid by the upgrade. Do pass along the hack. raincoaster at gmail dot com, plzthx.
I’ve even prepared some radically different leaflet materials for Boris’ campaign. Golly, t’would be a shame if he couldn’t get them because I was locked out of the forum. Could make all the difference in certain neighborhoods.
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raincoaster – sent you the steps I went through. Hopefully it will help.
I’m sure I speak for many people here when I say that I would love to see your leaflet materials.
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Thanks, it worked like a charm. Weird, I couldn’t even get the googlecache last week.
Leaflet materials here:
Support Al Kemal for Mayor of London; the People’s Choice!
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