Roy,
Glad to hear you are not angry. Nothing I wrote was intended as an insult.
Dave,
yes, that's the boxes I'm aiming at.
On the free man thought: Aside from any spiritual realm, I feel a lot of exercise is needed to be different and not feel bad because there is a very subtle automatism installed in society, in everybody, to feel free to question whoever is different. Starting with the innnocent question why do you do this or that- which one will be asked by others like an automatism if one acts different. For instance the not eating meat thing. It must be obvious to anybody who asks a vegetarian that they are not the first people who ask that. At the other hand, I can't believe that I'm the first person they ever found who is vegetarian or that they just started to think about this question.
Children like to make fun of names of other children if the names are good for that. Partly I think, because they consider this to be a new joke. Grown up we realize that if the person has that name we needn't comment on it because any comment we make will likely be repetition.
In the vegetarian question there is another part that is interesting to me: it's the box. Why am I labeled a "vegetarian", why are they not called "meateaters"? If they would eat humans they would be called "cannibals". In this context I would say the box, or label is often misused to define a vegetarian as somebody who is not normal, an outsider.
Being a pacifist right now you have to preface your argument with, of course you are appalled about what happened to the Twin-Tower victims, but if you are not a pacifist you don't have to do that. How come? To me it seems to be the same mechanism at work. Either you are mainstream or you are suspect.
All of us have a strong desire to belong and when our beliefs set us apart often our first impulse is to conform. Hopefully a maturing process allows us to accept our unique view of reality.
I agree with your view that labeling diminishes our ability to see the complexity which makes genuine relationship more difficult.
I'm afraid I have no dogs or cats or any pets except for my American, vegetarian, pacifist, buddhist husband (who I had to smuggle through customs)
.
Ulrike