A Theory of Stratification

Living in Merced-- one of the most dullest places in the world-- has, to some degree, opened my eyes to the reality that is social stratification.

I live in a house with a white man and a half-white, half-black man who take pleasure in making smart-ass remarks about the tragedy of living in Merced. Seriously, who likes living in this two-bit passenger town that nobody cares about? Shit, not me. Hell naw not me!

Anyways, we pass on time by making fun of everything that forms Merced (I wont get into specifics because it would take to much time). Merced sucks-- it makes Idaho look like Hollywood, and Idaho sucks pretty bad. Come to think of it, the only thing Idaho had was that stupid Napoleon Dynamite movie, and due to its unprecendented success, Idaho's politicians praise the directors religiously. Here are a couple of reasons why Merced sucks:

• It smells like cow shit
• The Merced Mall is, by no means, a mall
• The locals are so fucking weird (a girl straight out called me a Mexican one time. Oh, and the girl was about 4 years old).
• The women are, how shall we say it, "unaproachable" by the average sane man's standards.
• The weather...... I don't even know where to begin with this bullshit. It's too damn hot in the summer and too damn cold in the winter, but I guess I might be asking too much on this one.

Mind you, just like any other city, Merced has it's deeming qualities, however they're not as funny as the bad ones, so I won't make another list.

A while ago I had an intelligent (one of the few) conversation with my writing professor from UC Merced. We talked about philosophy, noir literature, poetry, economics, and the like. Something that I've been thinking about was his idea of Merced becoming culturally significant to the political spectrum of California. He said that there's political corruption in downtown Merced, and the the volatility of the different classes, the lack of a decent job market, the recent house market crash (jackasses), and the lack of proper governmentship has made Merced look like Los Angeles did a few years back.

No matter which angle I choose to approach this, he's correct. The world around me could not get any worse, yet the men and women constantly arguing in the halls of Congress don't really seem to help at all.

Merced has become interesting; I want to see what will happen in the years to come. Stratification has made this city into an arena where personal interest are currently winning over honest public policy.

As long as people refuse to put their differences aside, Merced might possibly become another clone of the city of Los Angeles.