By Joe McClure

What’s Wrong With Us?

With so many things going awry in this country, there has to be some underlying reason, some subsconcious element that causes us to go beyond our normal, reasonable actions.

Murder in schools; petting and unwed pregnancies; exceeding speed limits and over-indulgence in anything; and cheating on exams, weights, volume, quality and anything that is regulated or unregulated.

We all have an underlying human element that sneaks in and causes us to do something we know is wrong. That element is the adjustment of a person's unacceptable tolerances into acceptable tolerances.

We know we can go slightly beyond the law or expected actions with normal tolerances. We consider five or 10 miles over the speed limit as within tolerable limits; we won't get pulled over. Petting is allowed up to a point. We experiment with killing small birds and animals with our new BB gun. We indulge in liquor, candies, nice clothes, new fads, new drugs, guns and explosives, etc.

After all our preset "acceptables" are reached, we tend to adjust those tolerances, and maybe adjust them again, and again, until they go beyond acceptable tolerances.

That is when the system goes bonkers; we went from acceptable tolerances to adjusted to excessive tolerances, to satisfy our own subconscience selves.

We get pregnant; we get drunk; we get fat; we go bankrupt; we commit crimes; we kill people.

Not all those unacceptable tolerances are we individually going to convert to acceptable tolerances, but they all have the same basic tendencies, and in some minds that is hard to differentiate.

What does this have to do with livestock?

Well, let’s look at it for a minute.

We all remember the butcher of long ago who weighed his thumb with almost every sale (why do you think the scales were positioned at eye level, other than to be able to hide that finger?) Gas pumps are frequently tested to insure accuracy. Government inspectors watch us to insure we do not put contaminated foods on the market. Meat gets dropped on the floor, ruptured intestines spill over carcasses, fruits and vegetables are washed with contaminated water, then put back into normal use unless we are caught. Outdated products are rewrapped and given a new sell-by date.

Grain traders are always buying at a discount because of tolerances; different lots may have too many broken kernels, or foreign matter, or rat feces, or moisture; but when all of them are blended in, they become top grade because of acceptable tolerances.

Wool buyers are always finding manure clods, rocks and bolts in bags. Livestock sellers include a few nondescripts with the load. Livestock buyers take a few nongraders without discounts, or buy them all at one price. Owners vaccinate in least likely to be seen places. Grass cattle are fed two weeks to make them pass grain and look like they are well fed. Livestock buyers pay the same price for everything regardless of quality. Growers keep heifers and bull calves together, don’t castrate.

The list can go on forever. These are tolerances. Let the buyer beware. It is just a pig in a poke. It all blends together and comes out fine.

There is an old expression: "Give ‘em hell but don’t chouse ‘em," meaning push them to the limit but don’t leave a visible mark.

All these tolerances are acceptable to somebody up to a point. Then the excesses take place. We got by with that, now let’s experiment with a little more, then a little more.

When do the acceptable tolerances become unacceptable tolerances, and who was the last you know of who exceeded their own acceptable tolerances? Try looking in the mirror.