I actually think that self-interest is overrated as an all-purpose guide to political motive. It leaves out something at least as powerful and immovable - individual psychology.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Is self-interest a bad thing? We want our leaders to be pure and good, but at the same time we want them to be effective, and to be effective you often have to be ruthless and not bound by ideology or the same morals that we pretend to hold ourselves to.
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
I guess because I'm a liberal I think it's not people's natural instinct to be completely self-interested.
Part of diplomacy is to open different definitions of self-interest.
People acting in their own self-interest is the fuel for all the discovery, innovation, and prosperity that powers the world.
The beauty and riddle in studying the motives of any politician is in trying to decide what is idealism and what is self-interest, and often we are left to conclude that the answer is a mixture of the two.
But generally speaking, I felt to engage in the political process was to sully oneself to such a degree that whatever came out wasn't worth the trouble put in.
Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.
I think a lot of self-importance is a product of fear. And fear, living in sort of an un-self-examined fear-based life, tends to lead to narcissism and self-importance.
I think most people act in their self-interest.