An man or a woman, a boy or a girl ... robs a gas station, blows up a building, goes on a shooting rampage, or joins in a riot.

We are then told to believe that "society" is somehow responsible for the individual's actions, or that "government" is responsible.

We may be asked to believe that the individual's parents were responsible, for not giving him or her enough spending money, of for disciplining him or her too much, or not enough, or for this or that.

We may be told that the teachers who instructed the individual are at fault, or the authors of the books he or she has read, the movies he or she saw, the games he or she played, or that the photographs he or she looked at, or the gun he or she fired, are "responsible" for the individual's behavior.

The objective truth of the matter, the reality, is that in the defined chronological sense in which we are presently using the term, only the individual is responsible, since only he or she could have made the final decision to commit the robbery, or set off the bomb, or to pull the trigger, or to join in on the riot.

Only he or she could then command his or her own energies to accomplish or attempt to accomplish the objective, however foolish or wrong-headed an action that might have been.