By Frances Moore Lappé

Cultures live or die not because of their natural endowments but according to whether their ideas sustain life. ("It's the ideas, stupid!")

Ideas either serve life or not. And unfortunately for our species' chances, our idea of democracy-our shorthand for the system we use to shape society and solve problems-itself is life-stifling. Accepting the idea that democracy equals elections plus a market economy, we do not question an especially peculiar notion: that a market driven by a single rule, that of highest return to existing wealth, can return benign outcomes for all. We cling to this nonsensical belief-that in a game of Monopoly all players win-even as it so concentrates wealth that it leaves almost a billion of us without the means to eat.

A legal battle over corporate claims to be treated as persons with accompanying constitutional rights has been going on for over 100 years in the U.S. At stake is the ability of corporations to use "free speech" and other rights accorded to citizens to exercise enormous power over the political process, and to intimidate citizens who challenge them on environmental and other issues.