Sean Walker

April 17, 2019

Why Is It So Wrong But Right?

Throughout the course of history, men have committed immoral, illegal, and unethical actions

despite the common knowledge that what they do is wrong. Individuals, organizations,

governments have been all guilty of this. Their actions have resulted in the loss of life, natural

resources, trust, and a community’s culture. Although we along with the guilty ones are aware,

we continue to carry on these acts. What makes us do this? And why do we continue to do so?

In-spite of all that we learned, we continue to betray each other due to Greed, Survival, and

Power.

One of the common themes I’ve encountered in Killers of the Flower Moon was the Greed that

infested many people like the plague. For example, William Hale, who was known as “King of

the Osage Hills” did everything in his power to earn wealth that he didn’t really need since he

already made a living off dehorning, branding, and selling stock. He earned a positive reputation

for the good work he did for Osage County and its people. He built schools, hospitals, and

donated to local charities. He had wealth and respect but unfortunately Hale wanted more. When

oil was discovered in Osage County, Hale saw this as a golden opportunity to enrich himself

even more. Along with his nephews, Hale devised an evil plan. His ultimate plan was to get his

hands on the Osage land and money. He instructed his nephew to marry the Molly to gain the

family’s trust. They plotted the murders of Molly’s family so their assets would go to Molly and

eventually to Hale and his nephews. This deceit was driven by their greed. The US Government

was also driven by Greed. They drove the Indians out of their land and pushed them to what they
thought was barren land. When oil was discovered on the Indian lands they moved in once again

and created a scenario to discredit the Osage so they could control their money. In today’s

America, Greed can be seen in many areas. Companies like Comcast and ATT overcharge

consumers for their services. PG&E did not maintain their power lines causing death and

destruction because they did not want to spend the money.

Men have committed acts that were unethical and illegal because of Survival. This was played

out many times in events of Killers of the Flower Moon. The Osage Tribe was on the run off

their lands by the settlers. These settlers forced the Osage to leave their ancestral lands and move

to other areas. The settlers were desperate to establish a home and community and they did not

care about the welfare of the Osage. They committed these acts because of Survival. Ernest

Burkhart was a key participant in the events that occurred in Osage County. Upon instruction

from Hale he married Mollie as part of Hale’s plan to gain the family’s trust so they could take

their wealth. Burkhart confessed that he hired a man to dynamite Bill and Rita Smiths home.

Burkhart knew that his actions were wrong but he was protecting his uncle and to avoid Hale’s

wrath. After he confessed a prosecutor said “whose mind is at ease because he has relieved his

tortured soul of a terrible secret and now seeks repentance and forgiveness “(p212 Hard, Grann)

Much like Greed and Survival, Power has to do with the superiority of a human being who

believes they are or should be above everyone else regardless of whether they pose a threat or

not to him or her. William Hale himself despite being one of the most powerful people in Osage

County felt his power wasn’t enough, He decided to go after the Native American families while

he was profiting and making a name for himself. He would commit some of the ugliest crimes in

order to get there. When John Bates died, his widow claimed “Hale kept my husband drunk for

over a year. Hale would come to the house and ask him to sell his inherited shares in land. Joe
always refused no matter how drunk he was. I never believed he sold that land, he always told

me that he would not even up to a few days before his death” (#197, Hard) Hale’s determination

to acquire the land as quickly as possible showed how impatient he was. Hale would’ve gained

more if he was more reasonable. Hale controlled Bates with alcohol. He actions were

manipulative because he wanted to have power over others. Hale committed acts that were

malicious in his attempt to gain Power over everyone around him. He cheated and betrayed his

friends so he could gain wealth which gave him Power.

Power can be something that all of us struggle to resist. Power is tempting and irressistable

because of the rewards it can bring such as fame, glory and wealth. Unfortunately, humans have

for the most part abused their power for their own benefits even when they could easily use it for

good.It can make you both arrogant and really narcissistic, and can go as far to affecting how

your peers will look at you. When I was in high school. I once tried to pursue a relationship with

a Girl of Jewish heritage who was the same age as me) who clearly wasn’t interested in me from

the start. I was blinded by my lack of maturity, reality, patience, and my quest for power among

my peers. And even after being suspended from school, I knew what I did was wrong but I held

on to the belief for years that I was wronged and treated unfairly by my superiors. I felt that they

stood in the way of my successfully making a name for myself in school even though I already

built a positive reputation among the teachers I worked with at the time. I was pretty hostile back

then, paranoid, and slightly hateful. It even got into Anti-Semitic territory like Blackie

Thompson when he called Hale and his nephews “too much Jew—they want everything for

nothing.” (#187, Hard) The thought that Blackie and I shared something in common with each

other is disheartening to believe. A good chunk of people I’ve discovered through the internet are

Anti-Semitic. Society throughout history has been blaming the Jews ever since the earliest days
of Christianity. Even today, as misguided as it seems, are blaming them for the recent armed-

conflicts, economic collapses, and slavery. Hale and Thompson are two human beings whose

personalities have shown them to be hostile and very selfish people. Like many have once said,

“Hate is a Strong Word” and people always look for someone or something to blame for things

that go wrong in their life. Blaming others somehow makes them feel better about themselves

when they should be thinking about their own bad decisions and wrong-doings and the

consequences of their words, actions, and decisions.

We have to ask ourselves as a society what would needs to change so people stop acting

immorally and unethically. I personally believe that our culture has much to do with this issue.

Society puts material wealth and power on a pedestal and glorifies people who attain this. As a

result people have resorted to actions that they know to be wrong because of their desire for

admiration. They are motivated by Greed and Power. They deny their conscience because they

need to preserve themselves. In order to make a change we must educate people. We need to

understand that we can be honored and respected by doing good things. Money and Power

should not be our goals in life. We also have to look at the inequalities in our society that make

people act in these ways. They are desperate to have a better place in society and are willing to

hurt people to get what they want. If there are opportunities for all such as education people will

not have to resort to wrongful acts.

Citation Page
Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI