>I am wondering, if you could take a poll among vegetarians would you find >that a great many have been victimized, and if you wanted to get all >Freudian about it, would you find that this has anything to do with their >decision to be vegetarian? There's another angle that might be even more common although it's not necessarily confined to dietary choices only. In my case, I was a raw vegan and fruitarian for a number of years. Reflecting on that part of my life (a dozen years), I would have to admit that a lack of self-esteem and self-love played a major role. Now before y'all start rolling yer eyes, let me quickly expand on this. Without self-esteem, I was living a fear-based life. One of them, a fear of being left alone, was instrumental in my adopting a vegan diet, a natural hygienic lifestyle, a fruitarian existence. On such an "extreme" lifestyle, I was able to feel special and draw attention to myself. "Hey, look at me, I'm weird! I belong to a special small segment of the world's population. Let me tell you why I'm special!" When I had no need to "be something," I was able to establish a dietary that was more suited to my biology. Cheers, Jo