Clouded Judgement

I think many of us would agree that there is a defined relationship between our actions and our experience. I have a hard time understanding those that don't consider or seem to ignore the relationship. It is simple cause and effect. As I mentioned earlier, I am currently teaching summer school. I have 18 students who failed two or more classes this past school year. Needless to say there is great potential for problems and difficulty with motivation in this crowd. It has gone well save for one student. I don't know this person, haven't had him in any classes and have tried to keep an open mind and disregard his negative reputation. Over the past few days he has shown himself to be supremely idiotic. I tend to extend freedom first and retract it as a consequence for crossed boundaries. This student has had open campus lunch revoked for being 1.5 hours late, and today while under the guise of "using the restroom" went to the parking lot to smoke a cigarette. The principal, who is brand new to the school, delivers the boy and indicates "he can no longer leave the room save for breaks". This is a kid who has even harsher , court appointed, restrictions in his life outside of school. He just doesn't seem to understand the relationship between actions and experience.
I bring this up because, to me, it relates directly to my decision to cycle more frequently. I've known kids and adults alike that act just like the student mentioned above, and I'm sure you do too. For me, the decision to commute by bike is a logical extension of my views on environmental, political, moral, and health concerns. I take the information that I have, consider the consequences of my actions and try to act on them the best possible way. I'm not saying it is easy. I don't always want to ride. Sometimes I want to just get in a car because it is easier. It is laziness and lack of conviction. Is the student mentioned above lazy and apathetic, mentally challenged, or is something else going on?
When I consider the challenges our world is currently experiencing it seems too easy to explain away the actions of corporations, governments, or individuals by citing apathy or stupidity, at times their actions seem too contrived to be so thoughtless. This leads to my point; why do certain people do things they know are wrong or harmful, that will ultimately harm their experience? I don't pretend to have an answer, anymore than I can tell you why I do things in the same vein, for example I drink beer knowing it contains empty calories and is ultimately harmful to my liver. It just seems to me that if people would consider the consequences of their actions on themselves and others in the short and long term, this would be a much grander world to live in.
Until then I'm going to keep riding for myself, the example I set, and for the planet. I'm going to have a beer after it all, maybe two, and I'm going to continue to try to engage my students in the possibility that informed logical thought can be a great way to live.