I totally agree. In fact, the only reason why people accuse other people of being "greedy" all the time is because saying so makes them feel "proud" of themselves.

But I think we need to do a better job of putting a finger on what "pride" actually is. So here goes: Pride is the confidence that you are accepted by your community.

That's it. And the reason why our need to feel proud is so powerful is because humans are so dependent on each other for survival. Throughout history, if you didn't have a community who accepted you, you were as good as dead.

But since group acceptance is such a fundamental need, I don't think there are any substitutes for pride, other than more pride. And so the vaccine for pride can't be "gratitude" per se. Rather, it must be a promise of group acceptance. In other words, rather than forcing people to search for pride in unhealthy places, like their race, heritage, political party, job, education, gender or sexual identity, or their identity as rejects from mainstream society (e.g. incels) we need to start accepting everyone just for existing.

That's a hard thing to do. But in a way, all that is needed is for more people to realize it. Because the more people who realize it, the more that idea (e.g. universal acceptance) will start to show up in media. And if that reassurance of group acceptance starts to show up in media, then people will start to trust that they are, in fact, accepted.

This will start to go down the rabbit hole a little bit, but I think another big idea to help with this, is the idea that there is no free will. Indeed, free will is a nonsensical myth. And since there is no free will, we can recognize that everyone is always just doing their best, which can help us feel more empathy towards each other.

To be sure, certain behaviors (e.g. crimes) must still be discouraged and prevented. But if we can learn to accept that free will has nothing to do with it, we can start to be less judgmental, and more accepting of other people's decisions and personalities.