Literally “little by little” – a simple enough saying, but like everything else…context, context, context.

In my experience, this is one of the most Mexican sayings there is. And again, it’s a simple saying, I’m sure you’ve heard the english version enough times to attest. But it is also a saying that perfectly sums up a worldview – one that is completely opposed to the *everything now* mentality associated with capitalist societies.

Ok, so let’s break it down:

*Little by little* refers to a process yes, but a certain kind: a movement towards something. Towards a goal. That’s important. Goals are good. This is the first part of a completely different world view than the one dominated by markets and consumers and shareholder values. Maybe you don’t think so – and that’s okay. I mean, you’re hella wrong, but still…it’s okay.

[side note: the idea that advertising doesn’t somehow affect your decisions regularly is probably the most common as well as the most dangerous conspiracy theory floating around these days. Holy shit dude, of course advertising works on you – and thinking that you are somehow above or beyond the sway of advertisers sure as shit keeps you from noticing exactly how and when it is affecting your decisions. So, if you find that you are one of the chosen people who “advertising doesn’t work on”, then keep being too cool for school I guess – I’m sure it will start working out for ya one of these days, pal.]

Seriously, setting your own goals and then deciding how best to go about accomplishing them is pretty fuckin foreign to consumerist cultures. If you’re skeptical then consider this before you start thinking of all your *very serious* reasons why this isn’t the case: a lot of people (and the corporations they reanimate) spend a crap-ton of money on a continual basis to make sure that people base decisions on borrowed whims rather than their own best-interests. Like a craaaaaap-ton of money. On a daily basis. This is advertising and people would not pay this much this often if it didn’t work.

Setting your own goshdarn goals is step one and step two is working towards them – enter poco a poco. Poco a poco is a strategy for accomplishing the goals you set for yourself. Little by little means you don’t focus on where you are at right now, what the results are right now, what you have right now, etc, etc. Little by little means you focus on the progress towards a goal, and as long as you’re moving in the right direction, that is enough.

One last point before looking at the worldview poco a poco embodies: I said before that this is a very Mexican saying. What I mean is that every person I have met as well as the present government lives this way. When Mexico talks about moving out of the neoliberal period, this is part of what they mean – it means that official policies as well as the activities that make up people’s daily lives are not going to be dominated by the “markets” (ie the dictates of ridiculously large corporations and their flunkies in and out of government agencies), but are self-determined (hey I know a society that says this is one of the most important things to it, even though there is literally zero evidence to actually support this claim). My point here is that this is a society-wide feature, a structural feature if you will, and not just the personal attitudes of a hundred million or so isolated individuals. [another quick aside: it baffles me to no end that so many Very Serious People^TM in this day and age actually truly believe that people are just isolated individuals and that any patterns in behaviors or outcomes or opinions or anything else are just so many coincidences. Keep putting your hands in the fire kiddos, maybe one of these days it won’t burn you – but I personally wouldn’t bet on it.]

Anyway, here is the big payoff for this lil ramble:

I’m sure many of you have come across the idea that consumerism in general only leads to the hollowest form of happiness that falls apart as soon as you try to get a hold on it. Nothing new to this insight – but again, it’s kinda crazy that everyone knows this and yet still so many defend the system where this is the best outcome that most people could ever aspire to. Ah well…nevertheless. I think that a big reason why consumerism is so hollow and all its joys are acrid and fleeting is that it is almost entirely based on whim-fulfillment. (Very specifically not wish fulfillment – that’s goal oriented thinking, sorry.)

Ok, I gotta say something about whim-fulfillment. Just because an idea popped into your head does not mean that it is important in any way, and by extension just because you “decided” that you suddenly want, nay need, a certain item, does not in any way mean that the chosen item is good for you in any way. And I don’t mean that it’s bad for you like junk food (although this is often true, it’s not really relevant to this kind of goodness), but as in something that fits into your own goals and aspirations. In other words, whim fulfillment generally isn’t good by the standards of the person whose whim is being fulfilled – at least if they sat and thought about it for a minute.

Idk, maybe I’m wrong and humans aren’t supposed to mature past toddlerhood – but god I hope that isn’t the case.

So, standards and judging stuff based on standards. As far as I can see, the number one most important distinction between these two ways of relating to the world is how they use standards for judging whether something is good or worthwhile. I know, seems kinda out there, but hear me out: 

One of the cool things about goals in general, and personal or societal goals in particular, are that one of their core components is that they are in fact standards for judgment in and of themselves. [quick qualification: of course other standards also apply in any judgment, but I’m not talking about ethical standards or the like right now. Other times yes, but just not now.] That is, you can ask yourself, “is this thing that I’m doing helping me reach my goal or are there other things that will get me there faster or with less other costs (not just money, there are so many more important costs in this world – time, health, relationships, etc, etc)? Then you just look and see, simple as.

[Likewise, this is a great method for assessing public policies – if they don’t advance worthwhile goals then they should be changed immediately if not sooner – and no amount of talking points should matter imho.]

One of the not so cool things about whim-fulfillment is that there are no significant standards at all beyond the fact that it was a whim and it got fulfilled. “Yeah, but that is a standard, you pretentious bafoon!” Sure, yeah…A shitty standard that doesn’t amount to literally anything. I said no significant standard – do you think the whims of toddlers have any real meaning beyond “that’s just how toddlers behave”? Because they don’t. And what’s more is they’re not supposed to – toddlers are toddlers after all and aren’t supposed to have any real long-term consequences for their actions or “decisions”, and for real you shouldn’t want to have the same mentality as a toddler if you are old enough to read this kind of drivel on the interwebs. Humans have an extremely long maturation process for a reason – and “finishing” it fast doesn’t make you precocious it just means that most likely you never got past the toddler stage.

So anyway, if you’ve been amazed at how Mexico seemingly came out of nowhere to become a major player on the world stage – and one that is leading the charge towards a livable future for itself as well as the rest of humanity, well…now you have a better idea of how this happened. Honestly, it really is the only way to build things that last in this world – and hopefully a lot of what they’re building will last for generations. So far, they’ve been doing it poco a poco, and thankfully are continuing to do so. Poco a poco.