“The only solution to this deadlock is the Hegelian one: we should abandon the very ideal of a self-transparent society where full democracy abolishes all alienated structures. Alienation is a condition of our freedom, it gives us a breathing space to exercise freedom. I am free only insofar as the big Other (social substance) in which I dwell is non-transparent to me and to itself (there is no secret Master who pulls the strings). Reconciliation means that we have to reconcile ourselves with alienation,”