BESTOF: February
THE BESTOF’S
Lots to get through this month.
Enjoy.
BEST IN SHOW
In a now long-familiar Leftfield refrain, our frustrations with fitness can either be traced directly to or, are magnified by, a disconnect from reality.
And, by extension, that training (a dialogue between body and mind) serves as an unfailing GPS in this regard.
But as detailed in the last BEST IN SHOW this disconnect is fast becoming the theme of our time. And as much as I've underscored the idea of body anchoring mind in reality, and the absence of such— or any other checks and balances— leaving you unmoored, AND, long decried both our sidelining of physical education in favour of supposedly 'more important' pursuits AND our descent into political and societal madness as a corresponding lack of psychological fitness, and that same disconnect.
Even noting my analogy of body and mind being like the two-person simultaneous key turning you'd see in 80s movies, or the more modern-day 2 factor-authentication— rather than one holding primacy over the other.
Even in light of all that I've still never connected the dots...
One is CAUSING the other.
(Face. Palm.)
The societal decline of physical fitness makes us increasingly prone to flights of fancy.
This is why Mishima describes “the area of the skin, which guarantees a human being’s existence in space.” It was precisely this area that I had neglected—because it is synonymous with reality, and reality always corrects prideful hallucinations, of which those who are lopsided by language have no shortage. A body in the world has certain limitations, but a thought inside a head has no such guardrails.
Thus lifting, which is commonly thought of as the activity of the egotistical and vain, is in reality the opposite—it is a corrective for those things.
When not kept in check, thought and language tend toward idiosyncratic, self-centered dreams.
In most endeavors, there is a point at which the idea comes into contact with reality, and if the idea isn’t harmonious with reality, one is forced to reevaluate. But in the life of pure language, there is no such measure and, therefore, nothing to prevent nonsense from spiraling uninterrupted forever.
Tell me that doesn't describe academia, publishing and the media— just for starters— as 'lopsided by language.'
As Henry Rollins summed it: the iron never lies.
https://harpers.org/archive/2024/02/getting-the-pump-jordan-castro/
And now for something completely different. Geopolitics
Oh.... nope. I spoke too soon. Something very much the same.
Geopolitics. And Tucker Carlson, in the literal land of the Potemkin Village, failing to see the irony in deciding 'Moscow is so much nicer than any city in the US'
Even were he not seeing a (no doubt brutally) 'sanitised' version of Moscow— it rather misses the point.
As in the article below, Matt Johnson details more of this moral confusion that only puffs up the Putin's and causes more self-inflicted wounds to the West.
That these conflicts are asymmetrical is clear, what is not is why the West positions itself to its disadvantage in every one of them. If recent losses in Afghanistan and Iraq —tech wizardry vs stoneage stubbornness— haven't made clear, we're not that good.
Iran blatantly attacks Israel and the rest of the world (shipping) via the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah.
But any strike at the head of this triple-H hydra is deemed to be escalatory.
Okay. Well by that same reasoning, you can expect we'll arm Ukraine with everything we've got.
No, you can't do that because that would be an escalation, and we'll respond in kind.
Righto. In that case, Iran can standby for a physical warning on the same basis.
Make up your mind.
To be clear, we should be reluctant to fight. But we should recognise and accept when we're in one. Because they do.
If you’re bristling at my use of the collective we and divisive they, understand that any (further) decline of the Pax Americana means nothing good for everything you hold dear. Noting, obviously(!), that doesn't mean America has been a perfect global policeman these past 80 years, but, by contrast to whom?
Those believing in the fantasy of a multipolar world are not merely naive, they take the Western world, its freedoms, values and way of life for granted. A few more seats at the table might be a great idea were these emerging powers not united only by their bellicose rejection of these ideals.
In the hierarchy of casus belli, the invasion of a sovereign nation sits at the apex. Above attacks like 9-11. And while the US and its allies might not be obliged to do anything about it, the real question is, will you be better positioned to do so again?
In each case, it continues along a predictable path and at every waypoint— whatever our inclinations— we are less able to do anything about it.
Putin was only emboldened by his first foray into Ukraine. And Georgia before that. Obama's red line in Syria wasn't.
The time to bomb China's terraformed islands in the South China Sea back to the rubble they were made from was when—contrary to international law and their own promises— they first started militarising them.
Sorry. That's not happening.
And, as necessary, keep doing it.
With fair warning, zero—or close to— casualties. Now, a fortress of offshore 'unsinkable carriers' offer legitimate area denial making any carrier group navigation of the South China Sea less a projection of American power than one of (Chinese) hospitality.
You kill the monster when it is small. And while America rightly suffers a hangover over its dubious and undeniably disastrous exits from previous conflicts, there are more serious threats to global peace and stability than either of those ventures.
It's only becoming ever more costly in blood and treasure. The inevitable reckoning magnitudes worse.
For all parties.
This habit has become so ingrained that declarations of Western complicity and culpability are often the only contributions left-wing organizations and figures make to debates about war and human rights.
https://quillette.com/2022/09/09/what-the-left-keeps-getting-wrong-about-ukraine/
Believing any rustle in the grass to be a lion once kept us alive over our more sanguine tribe mates, so it's only human to be more motivated by the negative than the positive.
On balance, it probably does more harm than good in the modern day, but as I wrote in 2018 — and holding the 5-year lead— here Tim Ferriss describes how you can use that negativity bias to your advantage.
The painful reckoning — a contrast to more typical modern messaging of self-love, acceptance and other false platitudes.
I am all for self-compassion but does pandering to your bullshit really fall under that heading?
I actually remember the exact moment I decided to do something.
https://tim.blog/2024/02/09/harajuku-moment/
A breakdown of supplements for skin health.
The major objective of this paper was to provide a narrative review of the available literature regarding several chosen compounds that are currently widely sold as supplements that aim to maintain proper and healthy skin conditions.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10820017/
Movnat on the benefits of another Leftfield favourite: crawling
…helps in reinforcing natural movement patterns that can be lost due to modern sedentary lifestyles.
https://mailchi.mp/movnat/maps092622-2768773?e=3621e1c46e
I've long promoted the benefits of heat and cold, and, I walk the walk, taking saunas when I can, an ice bath weekly and a cold shower most days.
You might dismiss these as optional extras, at best, and you may be right. But given we know— with the possible exception of the appendix— the body doesn't do anything for shits and giggles, it's probably worth reading about the temperature shock proteins elicited by these extremes.
The good news is if the cold ain't your thing—you and everybody else— a hot bath will do it.
Temperature shock proteins are busy little buggers, performing many vital bodily functions.
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/benefits-of-saunas-and-ice-baths
In the latest dystopian news, we're now looking at screens for 7-10 hours a day. Relieve your digital eye strain with the 20 20 20 rule.
…in addition to all the vision issues, we’ll talk about headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, low back pain.
And finally, If you're jammed up through the hips, pelvis and base of the spine, here's a series of fantastic drills that’ll get you loosey-goosey in short order.
https://www.markowtrainingsystems.com/2024/02/14/rejuvenate-your-hips-with-this-free-workout/
MISCELLANEOUS
Recommendations reflect what I’ve been reading/listening to/watching/using recently but, in most instances, and especially where music is concerned, will not have been released in the past month.
MUSIC
BOOKS
The Year of the Locust - Terry Hayes
Not a patch on I Am Pilgrim but still pretty good until it went well and truly sideways in the last quarter.
TV
Kin S2.
APP
CLIP
Have a great weekend.
- OLI