As a former, dirty, Cal student, I’ve seen the full range of anti-Stanford sentiment: chemistry professors changing red solutions to blue, football chants that connect the word Stanford with an appropriate expletive and T-shirts depicting trees engaged in unspeakable acts. Aside from these standard expressions, feelings toward Stanford also manifest themselves in everyday conversation — claims that Berkeley has close access to good food, that Berkeley students are sexier than their Stanford counterparts — the usual.

Then there are the darker comments, that Stanford students are spoiled, that they live in a bubble — the usual bullshit. I love Berkeley, but sometimes we embarrass ourselves by engaging in stupid rhetoric. Although Stanford’s trash-talking can be equally ridiculous, I think these spoiled, live-in-a-bubble claims deserve a closer look.

The spoiled and bubble claims have no merit. When Cal students call Stanford students spoiled in an economic sense, they often base it off their own background. This is ridiculous, since a lot of Cal students come from the same economic background as Stanford students.

More broadly speaking, purporting that wealth reflects poorly on your character is totally misguided. First, its just plain weird: last time I checked, people wanted to be rich. Rappers don’t usually say “I can’t pay dis bill, but ‘ey, dat’s chill!” Driving a Porsche doesn’t make you evil, but trying to run over a poor man with your Porsche while screaming “Eat shit, riff-raff!” probably does. You can be an asshole if you are rich or poor; it’s just that being rich probably affords you more opportunities to do so.

There are similar problems with the Stanford-is-a-bubble argument. Although Berkeley’s surrounding neighborhoods can look a bit gruff, Cal students are just as insulated from non-university concerns as Stanford students. And what the hell is a bubble anyway? A different dimension that is physically separated from the known universe? If you based your perspective from the war zone in Darfur, nearly EVERYWHERE would be a “bubble.” Disparity is, unfortunately, the reality of this world — in one part of the world you wonder if a bullet or disease will kill you, in the other you anguish over midterms. People want to move from one “bubble” to the other; that process is called upward mobility.

It is true that attending Stanford affords certain privileges. The real question is if those privileges are deserved. I’d say yes. For the most part, earning the right to attend Stanford involves a lot of really hard work. There may be some issues with legacy clauses and affordability (to a lesser extent now due to recent financial aid developments), but on the whole these are overshadowed by the effort most students put in to attend Stanford.

Even if your attendance at an institution stems from your parents’ ability to afford it, is that necessarily a bad thing? Didn’t they work hard for their money, sacrificing so that you could attend pricey institutions? They didn’t put in all that effort so that you would get your education from the streets.

If you are lucky enough to be in a pleasant “bubble,” then grab a beer and toast it. The only real obligation you have is to enjoy and appreciate your bubble. If you haven’t already, you have this columnist’s express approval to flip the bird to anyone who denigrates you simply because of your surroundings. While you’re at it, tell them to take a bubble bath to clean up their act. Especially those dirty Cal students, right?