On Brechin

Brechin’s book is a myth buster that shows the true origins of such things as the Skyscraper, the cable cars, and how San Francisco was able to flourish into the city that it now is only by the decimation of the Sierra Nevada.
We all know and understand that the human mind is susceptible to billboards, magazine ads, TV commercials, and all other forms of advertisements. The media has always played a determinate role in public opinion and is therefore a powerful entity. In order to give the read a better understanding, Brechin included many news paper cartoons, pictures, and maps with his text.
One of his accompanying images, “Bonanza Veterans” (Pg. 42), is a satirical cartoon from the news paper The Wasp. It illustrates “A few wealthy insiders making fortunes battling among themselves.” The wealthy men are dressed as imperial Roman soldiers combating each other, while ragged men below them wander the streets. The rich men are clashing in front of the Greco-Roman style “SF Stock Exchange” building. This cartoon was designed to convey how the “bank crowd” of San Francisco or “Ralston’s Ring” have take over the mining stock exchange and are raking in the profits. Ralston and his associates have placed there own members as directors of the exchange and through insider trading are cornering the market. These men are the embodiment of Imperialism. Their clothes and the style of exchange building clearly allude to the imperial nature of their acts. They are rich men quibbling for more and more capital in order to expand their holding even further. They build their empire on the backs of cheap exploitable labor and are in a unending conquest for development. While the poor are trying to just scavenge a meal, the rich men are pushing out the competition and monopolizing the mining market.
Another provocative image the Brechin includes in his discourse is “Man’s Great Storehouse of Wealth” (Pg. 18). The idea that this image provokes is that the earth is destined to serve man. As a man towers over earth with a pick in hand, ready to strike her, and remove the treasure from her insides. But this was the popular though back then. Earth is here to enrich us. We are allowed to gain wealth at her expense. Hearst glorifies the ravishing of natural recourses and sums up his perspective with the “Beautiful Planet Devoted to his Use.”


Questions:
The motto “Gold in Peace, Iron in War” seems to fit the origins of SF perfectly, due to the mining history that we are now aware of. However any suggestions for an up dated motto?

I will never look at a dam or skyscraper the same way ever again…

On a side note: Derren Brown, a magician, mentalist, psychologist, and whole lot of other things, has this great video on subliminal advertisement, worth the watch, but I warn you, you might end up watching his other video for hours. To YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg