[nonameiguess]

> But in the case of righteousness, such a belief is almost always mistaken. Most of us, whether we be timid or bold, liberal, conservative, or (especially) some version of radical, are prone to imbibing heady infusions of the stuff. Viewing ourselves as “good,” in fact we become grievously toxic, literally intoxicated.

Something that "most" humans are prone to doesn't seem the same as addiction to me. It may produce some similar neural markers, but the number of humans subject to tolerance/dependency feedback loops that become pathological to the point of requiring medical intervention is surely small enough to not encompass "most" humans. If anything, this seems to be saying that self-righteousness is not an addiction at all, but a normal part of being a person that almost everyone experiences. If that is the case, I don't think individual virtue and discipline is up to the task of defeating where self-righteousness becomes prone to failure modes. Instead, we need systems and institutions that remain robust in the face of individual self-righteousness. Accept that a whole lot of people are going to be this way and find a way to make governments, companies, and communities that work anyway. If some collective effort relies upon the participants going against their own nature to work, it might work for some time, but it's doomed to not work for very long.