BESTOF: June
THE MONTHLY ROUNDUP
THE BESTOF’S
BEST IN SHOW
Two pieces examining the slippery idea of authenticity. I say slipperly because while reading them prompted what began as a straightforward rant about a real pet peeve, it somewhere took an ontological turn into wondering what it is we actually want from art? Skill? Risk? Sincerity? Or simply proof that another mind was on the other end of it? And whether those are even four different things, or one.
I’m still thinking, so I’m still writing. Or vice versa.
Here, we look at whether art can survive being fully absorbed into commerce or being untethered from a real, present self.
Mastroianni traces the death of ‘selling out’ as a cultural stigma — from 90s musicians refusing commercial tie-ins to today’s normalised celebrity-brand fusion.
But we do need to revive our desire for seriousness among our cultural elite. If we’re going to let these people into our lives, they ought to stand for something more than themselves.
Gioia defends authenticity from those who dismiss it as naive or performative.
If there were a polygraph test for artistic expression, we would want our favorite musicians to pass without the needle dipping into the dangerous red zone, where falsifiers and con artists do their dirty work.
For the better part of two decades, we’ve treated each new technology as innocent until proven guilty. More bizarrely, we’ve done so despite repeatedly finding it guilty. From smartphones to social media, technologies sold as tools of connection have become engines of surveillance, distraction and behavioural manipulation.
And not as unfortunate side effects. That promise of connection has instead erased social ties and led to the atomisation of society— it’s a business model that can only be described as bait and switch.
And still, with each new technology, we’re just as captivated by the promised upside as we were the last.
And so Jonathan Haidt argues for a well-founded—and long-overdue— techno-scepticism.
We already demand evidence of safety for medicines, toys, and food additives; why should technologies designed to shape attention, relationships, and development be exempt?
Shift the burden of proof from critics of technology to its creators.
Let them prove that their products are safe. We treat them like any other maker of potentially dangerous consumer products: we make them prove that their products are safe before they push them out into the world. And we hold them responsible for their safety lapses.
But here’s what I find most telling: of all the things this budget reformed, the government’s own spending wasn’t one of them. There was no plan to shrink the size of government, no serious attempt to ask why the APS needs to keep growing so fast. Every other part of the economy was asked to adjust. The one part of the economy that gets to write its own cheque was not.
https://quillette.com/2026/06/19/the-party-of-the-worker-is-now-the-party-of-the-bureaucrat/?
A short course in the pragmatic wisdom of William James. And especially required reading for those who don't 'feel like it'.
Here’s the part that’s meant to make you uncomfortable, and then the part that’s meant to set you free, and they are the same part.
https://bakadesuyo.com/2026/06/william-james/
Eric Barker again, with a different philosopher this time—and hitting many of the same themes throughout this edition.
Žižek starts with the assumption that we don’t even know what we want half the time and are frequently invested in not getting it.
Sounds bleak until you reflect on your own conduct for, oh, ninety seconds.
https://bakadesuyo.com/2026/06/self-sabotage/
And, very much in keeping with James’ philosophy, Raptitude aims to put himself out of business with the answer to every problem:
An answer that — like the Leftfield axiom to do what you can— severs inaction from justification. Every excuse, every rationalisation evaporates. There is nowhere left to retreat.
The dictum doesn’t ask anything of you that you can’t give.
You do it. Or you don’t.
https://www.raptitude.com/2026/06/the-answer-to-every-problem/
In other words, the most bleedingly obvious tactic Iran could have used — a tactic every previous president had weighed as a reason not to go to war — was used. And our entire plan was dependent on their not doing that for some reason. And once they did, we were fucked. It’s really not a lot more complicated than that. Laughable incompetence.
You’ll know me to be critical of the cult of consumption and optimisation in fitness, and here Derek Thompson makes nearly the same point but gets caught in the same optimisation trap in missing the fitness forest for the trees,
Fitness, like anything, can be taken to absurd extremes, but those pursuing quantified longevity, biomarkers and marginal gains are a rounding error against the far larger story of widespread—and increasing—physical incapacity.
The real problem is that we’ve come to view fitness only through this lens. As a hobby, lifestyle —or optimisation project—rather than what it is at bottom: a precondition for agency.
A measure of our capacity to engage in life.
And so — yes— it is and will continue to become a class (and cultural - and every other) divide you can think of, all as extensions of what is a functional one. In evolutionary terms, the most fundamental divide.
Whether through the mirage of metrics or any other proxy, biohackers and their optimising ilk only mistake the map for the territory. It merely masquerades as fitness, and whether pursued for identity, status, social capital, or an end in itself will readily become just another form of captivity.
Recognised as the foundation for everything else, it becomes the opposite.
To become a measurably enhanced self often means eliminating my less quantifiable sources of meaning and happiness.
Mindfulness, as defined by Kabat-Zinn, is the intentional, nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment that fosters relational clarity and healing, encouraging individuals to cultivate discernment and embrace their experiences without the distractions of judgment or striving.
A 2025 survey found that 57 percent of young French Muslims aged 15 to 24 believe Sharia law should take precedence over French Republic law. A majority position among the next generation of French citizens.
We’re headed to a divide between amplifying agency and becoming a cog. Where do you want to go?
https://seths.blog/2026/06/standby-intervention/
Like everything else at Leftfield, when learning to jump, fall, or even get up and down from the ground, step one is to improve our understanding of what is happening.
An understanding, in this instance, distorted by the common illusion that you are travelling around inside your head, suspended a considerable distance from, or even said to be ‘off’ the ground— as though you were levitating.
A more precise—and therefore useful— ‘embodied’ perspective teaches you to be, first aware of, and then operating from your centre of gravity.
So immediately you halve that ‘distance’, and correspondingly make everything half as scary. More so when we recognise that standing tall and lying flat are only different variations of being ‘on’ the ground.
As is so often the case, it's easy to dismiss this as semantics. But semantics shape perception, perception shapes behaviour, and when you come to believe you’re a long way from the ground— instead of feeling your connection to it— it’s no wonder you’re afraid of it.
And that’s the worst mistake of all.
Here, MovNat breaks down the key consideration when learning to jump. As with any other form of training, intensity is scaled to your ability to perform the exercise well, so the distance you can jump is determined not by how far or high you can go, but how well you can land safely.
A further interesting physical corollary to the mindset detailed last week is the advice when landing (or falling) to accept the ground.
Don’t (pretend you can) reject what IS (happening).
The point here is in the mindset: jumping down, falling, rolling, all involve the mindset of embracing the ground like a trusted friend; not fighting it off like your mortal enemy.
https://movnat.com/downward-jumping/?
Running (and carrying) — you are made for it.
We stand on two legs, have springy arches in our feet, long tendons in our legs, big butt muscles, sweat glands across our body, no fur, complicated noses that humidify air before it hits our lungs, and more.
Good form is a range. It's wide, because your body gets a say, and it has hard edges, because some things are dangerous no matter who you are.
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
TV
The Brigade (S3) and the World Cup.
APP
CLIP
Have a great weekend.
- OLI