The following was overheard near the rock-breaking pit of the gulag:

“Simply put: the more you attack Owen Benjamin, the stronger he becomes.

This is a concept largely developed by Nassim Taleb in his book “Antifragile”. It is almost obvious as a concept, but it has hidden complexities. Something that is fragile gets destroyed, in part or entirely, from variation, error (small or large), or randomness. Taleb uses the analogy of a package being shipped marked “Fragile”. It must be handled with care or else the contents will be broken when it arrives. Most people think that robustness is the opposite of fragility. Something that is robust can withstand pressures of variation, errors, and randomness over time. A good otter box for your cell phone can make it nearly unbreakable. Some can even be driven over by a car and be in working condition afterward. But, the thing that is antifragile is the thing that does not merely survive variations, errors, and randomness over time, but uses them to become even stronger. Biological life on an evolutionary scale can be an example of this. Evolution uses small errors, and sometimes even large ones, over time to develop systems that improve over time from randomness and variation. A more mythological example that Taleb uses to illustrate this unique attribute can be the difference between the Phoenix which is restored after burning to ash, and the Hydra, which exhibits an increase in its capabilities: each time a head is cut off, two more grow in its place. Another way of thinking of it is degradation vs status quo vs improvement.

A recent real-life example that illustrates this property is the sky-rocketing popularity of Jordan B. Peterson. Each time he encountered an adversarial situation he did not merely weather the storm, or survive the attacks laid against him. He grew his audience and increased the power of his message. Taleb makes it a point to say that if one is writing a book, the surest way of selling many copies is to have very harsh and very well known critics. Perhaps the combination of being on a well known British TV station, along with harsh criticism (I realize it is a stretch calling what she did criticism), is something that really lit things up for Jordan.

Owen Benjamin is now in the same boat as Peterson (which I’m sure is Owen’s dream given how much he adores JBP). He is facing harsh criticism from loud and well-known entities: Youtube and Twitter seemed to be coordinating their censorship of his accounts, along with the Pedophile networks working through Salon etc to publicly shame him on all other social media as well as trying to get him off stage at wherever he’s trying to do his stand-up show. But these attacks are not just showing that Owen Benjamin is a survivor of coordinated social assaults. They are not just revealing his good character (Owen never unsheathed his proverbial sword against these people to harm them) but also this other mysterious attribute that few people have: his antifragility.

His Youtube channel broke 100,000 subscribers while he has been banned from live streaming (which was also one of his primary ways of earning an income). His Twitter following skyrocketed past 100,0000 as well. And most telling of all, his Patreon now has over 1300 patrons and is earning over $8,000 per month, which is at least a six or seven-fold increase from what it was before these latest attacks.

For a person who is antifragile, all of these attacks are truly a blessing in disguise. All of the hatred and thirst for destruction coming from these people will be turned into laughter and something constructive by Owen and his bears. He will continue to be a shining example of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and antifragility. The harder they come at him, the more this statement will prove to be true.

Godspeed Owen!

Godspeed bears!”

A guard was immediately dispatched to the area to find the perpetrators. None were found. The puzzled guard looked around carefully. He noticed something odd in the mud…bear tracks.