JANUARY 19 — In the 2011 Roman Polanski movie, Carnage, two couples attempt to resolve a situation involving their children.

What starts out as a relatively ordinary scenario gradually emerges into sharp disagreement, growing resentment and eventually bitter conflict.

Worth stressing, though, is the fact that throughout the movie the two couples were doing nothing but circling around a traumatic void of suspicion, envy and accusation.

That there was a void is clear from the start. That superficial comments and niceties were employed in the work of covering up the void is also clear. What is clearest, though, is the absolute failure to prevent the power of this void from exploding.

(If you haven’t seen the show, try to catch it. Ada big stars including Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet.)

I’ve been studying psychoanalysis for a few years now. A key motif in this discipline is how subjects deal with agonising “monsters” in their lives, how meaning, symbols and fantasies are erected as smoke-screens to prevent the encounter with this terrifying “Thing” lodged deep within.

All of us live with a “bone in the throat,” something that renders our world awry, twisted and slightly “off.” Some issue, topic or event which threatens to make us explode in fits of fury or collapse in bouts of irrationality (or even insanity). It could be a sexual issue, a family problem, a failed dream, a lost love: we know there are unresolved problems, yet we choose not to know. We talk, we work, we move, we indulge, we click — we do everything we can to avoid facing up to this void in our lives.

For many Americans, at least one monster is guns and any suggestion they should be controlled. Over 30,000 gun-related deaths but many will still claim that the answer to the gun problem is more guns. Take those away and we could have a new American Revolution.

For liberals, the traumatic beast is free speech. Try telling folks like those at Charlie Hebdo that maybe some basic respect and good manners should be factored in each time we express ourselves and you get a feeling you’ve threatened the safety of their loved ones.

Also, do you find something weird about people who declare that, “I do not agree with what you said but I will fight to the death your RIGHT to say it?” When I hear this kind of thing I always go like, wouldn’t it be much easier if people focused on the DUTY to speak kindly and patiently to others? So nobody has to, uh, die?

For groups like Isma and Perkasa, the traumatic monster is virtually everything non-Islamic or non-Malay. “Women shouldn’t work, men shouldn’t do housework and K-Pop simply has to be a Christian conspiracy.” Amazing. I’m gonna go tell my church to frequent Kristian Fried Chicken restaurant more often in that case. (And am I the only one who suspects borderline psychosis here? If we can seriously entertain the idea that Korean boy-bands are the frontline of some anti-Melayu invasion, why not suggest that popcorn is an insidious instrument to infect the tummies and minds of morally upright Malaysians?)

For Barisan Nasional? Gee. I’m not sure what its traumatic touchy-point is. Maybe it’s any suggestion that Umno should stop making its members rich at the expense of ordinary Malaysians?

Likewise, the 1 Malaysia slogan is nothing if not an ideological cover-up for that void at the heart of Malaysia. If we wish to deny (or look past) the problem of corruption, bigotry, poverty (and election fraud?) in the country, why, let’s make some cool music videos, wave a thousand flags, conduct a few high-profile arrests, make a few (broad) promises and repeat a cool-sounding slogan. Hopefully people will forget or be too distracted to ask questions.

Finally, there is a more subtle cover-up for the trauma at the country’s core, one which practically everybody is guilty of: That of economic growth. Especially as elections are near, everybody who stands to gain from votes will be putting forth that one most effective cover-up of Capitalism itself, the promise of wealth.

If we can’t resolve the problem of poverty, of class conflicts, of inequality, of apathy, of environmentalism, of racial disharmony, hey don’t worry, here’s a better Gross Domestic Product (GDP). If we face national “holes in the ground,” the solution is simple: Let’s build a mall or a condominium to cover it up.

Why not a cultural centre? Or a park? Or a public square? A simple answer is that these are non-profitable. And no contractor or property man (or politician, for that matter) is going to risk his bank account and reputation to promote beauty and spaces for the public.

Profit is the name of the game. Yet a deeper symbolism remains. Couldn’t we view the setting aside of a public square as an act of keeping open a void in society? Isn’t building a cultural centre a form of un-covering opportunities and spaces for people to express their deepest feelings about the nation?

And thus wouldn’t the construction of more public spaces be symbolically equated to confronting a social void? Essentially, isn’t it true that businessmen and politicians fear facing up to the abyss, the gap, the split, at the kernel of the community?

Isn’t it safer for them, therefore, to plug this hole with profit-making projects which serve no higher purpose than making selected individuals richer and getting the masses distracted? And as long as the GDP statistics are rising, what’s there to complain about?

In this sense, I’m only half-glad that fuel prices have gone down. Sadly I can imagine what this will lead do: More cars, more car-related spending, more accidents, all of which leads to? More trauma. More monsters.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.