Conservative Denialism

     We often see, from the right (particularly in the U.S. and U.K.), the notion of personal responsibility. The remedy to any social problem such as unemployment, crime, teenage pregnancies etc. is supposedly the individual in question making the right choice and to stop making the choices that lead to this position. This approach has meet with major successes in both the U.K. and the U.S. mainly in religious communities. This post will examine the problems with this one size fits all tonic.
       It really boils down to a question of denialism. It is a well-observed fact that bringing people up in particular environments makes it statistically likely that they will exhibit certain behaviours. If one continually places people in position A and is faced with these people making choice X then it becomes the height of denial to insist that should these individuals change their behaviours the problem wouldn't exist. The conservative in this respect is similar to a scientist putting water in an environment below 0 degrees Celsius and then rebuking the molecules for forming ice. If a certain environment leads to certain behaviours then it is sheer denial to insist that these behaviours are not somewhat determined by said environment.
    The conservative position is perfectly sound with impeccable logic, if drug addicts chose not to use drugs they would be no longer drug addicts. Despite the soundness of this reasoning it is evidently moronic. While fully accepting the role of choice and not attempting to diminish responsibility we must ask what factors influence choices?
    If we can answer this question, i.e. what factors influence choices? Then we are most of the way there. If we can show that prevalent levels of income inequality lead to a greater homicide rate (mentioned in my previous post) then we cannot simply sit back and demand that these people choose differently. This approach is naught but denial at can be incredibly dangerous. We are faced with an ultimatum, either we do not try to solve the problem and deal with the increasing crime through prisons (the current approach) or we attempt to solve the problem. It cannot do to claim the problem does not exist.