a betrayal of our own higher, truer, realer potential selves
Yeah, that one. I remember instances where I tried to convince myself to act in a certain way, just to regret it afterwards. In my head I use arguments like "Others would do the same" or "This is clearly not my responsibility"...
To counter that I nowadays often ask myself "Would I be proud or ashamed telling the story of what happened?" Of course that does not work all the time, but it helps.
Yeah, hehe, the ol' "others are doing it" or "if I don't someone else will". The shady things we do lol.