That Damn Book

Basically:  Fundamentally; primarily.

"So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making."

You think?  Whenever I'm unsure what the problem is I follow my irritating sponsor's advice: I go find a mirror.  Up to this point I have been confronted by the same idiot looking back at me; the idiot who thinks that he isn't at fault for anything and that it's a terribly injustice when life delivers any of the bumps and bruises that life is going to deliver.

Riot:  Wild or violent disorder, confusion, or disturbance; tumult; uproar.
Extreme:   Very great or greatest; excessive; immoderate; very severe; drastic.

"They arise (the troubles do) out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot. . . "

Our founders could be so polite and respectful as they wanged us on the head with a wanging tool.  This sentence can be translated more clearly for the dim and slow-witted among us: "Your problems are caused by YOU, and YOU are an excessive, drastic, very severe (not just severe - very severe) example of wild and violent disorder."

That sounds about right.  But that's not the clincher.  

" . . . though he usually doesn't think so."

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: I rest my case.