Democracy is the common thread that knits our stories together. Much like "community," the word "democracy" is so often misused that its true meaning has become confused. Democracy in its best sense is much more than merely a mechanism. At its heart, it is a method, a way of living that's based on individual sovereignty. Democracy—were we ever to achieve it—holds the promise of giving all individuals the power to be the agents of their own destiny.

By establishing every person as equal to each other, democracy rests on the principle of majority rule or, even better, community consensus. In practice, this means that democracy is often unruly; it's a method that is, above all, messy. Democracy, just like sustainability, is not a destination—it's a process. The ebb and flow of democracy is influenced by the constant push and pull of culture, which determines the direction democracy points toward.

Here in the US, that direction is highly contested—there is a culture war underway in our country. No, not the culture war involving abortion rights and gay marriage. The cultural contest we see is not arranged along the now very tired labels of "conservative" and "liberal." Rather, the culture war we perceive goes much deeper, for it touches on the question of our place on this planet.

One of these cultures—the currently dominant culture of corporate capitalism—argues that no thing has any value unless a price tag can be placed on it. The thousands-year-old redwood is worthless until someone cuts it down, or unless someone is willing to pay for the privilege of admiring it. Under this worldview, a person living in Europe or the US is worth more than a person in Africa, for the simple reason that they earn more. This is a value system based on the belief that maximizing profit will lead to maximum human happiness.

The second culture says that every person, plant, and animal has an intrinsic value, and that therefore we have a responsibility to safeguard every living thing. We cannot destroy the planet or debase other people for quick cash. Democratic obligations, based on the ideal of equality, require that we balance our desires with those of others. This is a culture that recognizes that we are merely passing through this place, and that at the very least we owe it to our descendents to leave the planet as we found it. It's a value system based on a reverence for life.

The culture war is, then, a battle over whether money values or life values will be the most important influence in our society. The movement for a local, green economy is a central part of the effort to ensure that live values will prevail.

To acknowledge that we are engaged in a cultural contest is to recognize that change will not come from the policy wonks in DC. If we are part of a struggle to change the ethos of society, then that effort will happen slowly, and it will happen locally, through millions of individual conversations about the responsibilities we owe to each other and to the planet.

The tug-of-war between the culture of life and the culture of profit holds the possibility of re-aligning US politics. For example, critiques of the media as a purveyor of junk come from both the political right and the political left, each of which see media corporations as undermining values of community. Efforts to assist the world's poorest people also transcend conventional political labels, as conservatives and progressives come together for increased aid to poor nations. The growing involvement of Christian evangelicals on climate change reveals the universality of apprehending the sacred in nature.

Together, these trends suggest that a politics based on life values could overcome the divisions that have long dominated the US. With a union of life values, progressives and conservatives could form a powerful democratic majority that would help usher in a more ecologically sustainable and socially just economy. Our optimistic view of human nature tells us that those who believe in the life culture outnumber those who subscribe to the profit culture. We feel hopeful that, just beneath the veneer of our consumer society, the life values majority is coalescing, waiting for the opportunity to show itself.

When it does, it will reshape our society and our economy, proving—once again—that democracy is the most powerful antidote to the injustices that ail us.