The consideration of running as an anti-capitalist escape...

...is a position I have taken for a while. Recently I came across a book entitled, BODY FASCISM: Salvation in the Technology of Physical Fitness. Like finding extra cash in a long ago worn jacket, I happily discovered it in a used book store. I've only gotten through the first few pages or so, but Brian Pronger makes a case for the industry that I believe will parallel some of my own thinking. I was so excited to find a book on the subject because for years I have been thinking about this subject, and have been developing some sculptures/performance pieces that deal with the subject. One quick quote:

The destructive way that modern technological and patriarchal, white, Euro-American culture has dealt with the environment, under the guise of providing what is ‘best’ for ‘man,’ is, I suggest, also at work in the modern technological approach to the body; the techno-culture of physical fitness is a powerful manifestation of that approach. Indeed, perhaps if we can become more sensitive to the aggressive ways in which modernity deals with our own bodies, we may become more deeply aware of our aggression against the environment that surrounds us and the ecosphere that is essential to our life.

I plan on developing these ideas for a future writing piece...more later...