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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The man sentenced for having a cold

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Freedom: The Path To Happiness | Ajahn Brahm | 11-05-2007

2 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

there's a wonderful book written written over a hundred years ago it's called "Erewhon," by Samuel Butler. And apparently, that really influenced the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw. It changed the way he looked at some of these social problems and the reason why it was a very effective argument against the way we treat "criminals," or people who've done harm, with punishment, was that it used the satire. It envisaged a society in which, what we call crime today, is looked upon as being a sickness and therapy, therapy, therapy is the only response to crime. If somebody steals, they go and see a doctor. If somebody rapes, that's looked upon as being a sickness. Punishment is not really looked at at all. But somehow, a rehabilitation of trying to work out and remedy that glitch in human nature. But, when it came to health matters, if you were sick and ill, that was because you were careless and you were punished. Part of that book, a chapter which I will always remember, was of a court scene in which there was a poor man who had a cold. And when he had a cold (there's many colds going around right now [directed at audience], there's a cough already, you'd be in trouble in this society), because he had a cold he was in the dock, charged with being sick. And because he was sniffling, he had no defense and so the judge pronounced him guilty of having a cold and he, before he gave judgment, uh, sentence sorry, the punishment, he said, "This is not the first time you appeared before me, you were here last week or three weeks ago with a cold. I warned you then, if you don't eat better, take better care of your health, let go of your stress, it's your responsibility to be healthy and you have been negligent, and your cold is causing a danger to other people! You're being heedless, you're not caring for others, you're spreading your germs to other people, that's not appropriate, you should be punished: three years in jail for having a cold, being a repeat offender!

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 16:15 (to 18:56)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

In Samuel Butler's satire Erewhon, a sniffling man is sentenced to three years for repeatedly catching colds. Absurd, and that's the point. We treat sickness with care and wrongdoing with punishment. Ajahn Brahm suggests harmful behaviour may need protection and quarantine, but also healing, not cruelty.

In brief (our summary)

Ajahn Brahm recalls Samuel Butler's satire Erewhon, read as a student: a society where what we call crime is treated as sickness needing therapy, while illness is punished as carelessness. In one court scene a sniffling man is in the dock charged with having a cold. The judge finds him guilty, reminds him he was warned last time to eat better and manage his stress, says he is endangering others with his germs, and — as a repeat offender — sentences him to three years in jail.

Teaching point

Our double standard: we treat sickness with care but harm with punishment; harm too needs healing and, where necessary, quarantine without punishment.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Freedom: The Path To Happiness | Ajahn Brahm | 11-05-2007 · 2007-05-14 · ▶ watch from 16:15 to 18:56 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: Manual (volunteer) captions; occasional misspellings kept as is.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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