Parkour is Popular. What of it?

In today's society parkour has recently gained some unusual popularity. Parkour is a form of training in which the practitioner gets from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. The most common misconception with parkour is that it involves flips and stunts. Parkour is the same as freerunning but freerunning involves the flips and stunts, parkour does not require flips and stunts. Freerunning is the art of parkour. The question is, why is it getting so popular.

The first and most obvious thing is new marketing. In recent video games parkour has been portrayed as a skill that the protagonist possesses and uses to save the world. The first game and the most prominent one is Mirror's Edge. This game puts the protagonist in the role of a parkour master who is fighting against the government. The next game also puts the protagonist in the role of a parkour master. In the Assassins's Creed series, the main protagonist always knows parkour and uses that to stealthy assassinate all the villains. Even in newer games are being marketed toward parkour practitioners. One of the games that are coming out soon, Watch Dogs, is even has been tagged as parkour. In today's day and age parkour is deemed as the skill of the protagonist. It is quite obvious why people want to follow the role of the protagonist.

Parkour is about efficiency and control. Performing parkour involves efficiency of getting from point A to point B. To perform these feats of agility one must be strong, fit, and able to accurately control their body. Parkour is all about control of the body. Once you master full control of your body, you will be able to perform any trick or stunt you want. You need to have control over both your mental and physical body. Without the physical part you can't perform the stunts. Without the mental part you won't be able to overcome your fears.

Why do people practice parkour if it's so dangerous? The point of parkour is control and the people who practice parkour want that control. Maybe not in the actual sense of physical control. It might be a physiological effect. The people who want to master parkour want to gain control of their own life. Parkour is the sense of rebellion and control. In Mirror's edge the protagonist is rebelling against the government and wrestling for control over the corrupt government.

People want control, is this what our society is coming to? When someone wants more control, they are lacking it or need more. Our society used to be institutionalized and now our society is slowly obtaining more freedom. Getting that small taste of freedom has led to people wanting more freedom. This is why parkour has become so popular.