{"id":13634,"date":"2022-05-04T14:48:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=13634"},"modified":"2022-05-04T14:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:48:14","slug":"rte-kitsch-room-to-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2022\/05\/04\/rte-kitsch-room-to-improve\/","title":{"rendered":"RTE Kitsch: Room to Improve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Freyne<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u2019s satirical 2020 Irish Times article \u2018It is now late-period Dermot Bannon. He is on the verge of losing it\u2019 was an unusually humorous appraisal of the kitsch<\/em> that state broadcaster RT\u00c9 tends to dollop out.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being <\/em>Czech author Milan Kundera<\/a><\/span> explains that kitsch<\/em> is an aesthetic ideal \u2018in which shit is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist<\/em><\/strong>\u2019. This he argues, \u2018is the aesthetic ideal of all politicians and all political parties and movements.\u2019 The Montrose cultural bubble has long served a crucial political purpose: denying shit while everyone acts as though it does not exist.<\/p>\n

Through no fault of his own, the feel good factor of Dermot Bannon\u2019s show obscures the suffering associated with an enduring and arguably preventable<\/a><\/span> housing crisis, and also, more broadly, provides an insight into how the Irish overreaction to Covid-19 occurred; which has done incalculable damage to the lives of children especially.<\/p>\n

It seems that our best, and perhaps only, response in Ireland to these traumas is comedy, but this has clear pitfalls.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image (c) Daniele Idini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cfronted by classical pillars\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Patrick Freyne reveals:<\/p>\n

Dermot Bannon is my muse. I would write about him in every column if I could (God knows I try). If I were the arts editor I would make the arts pages of this paper entirely Dermot Bannon-themed. If I were taoiseach, I would declare a Dermot Bannon day \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

He observes that<\/p>\n

On every episode of Room to Improve, Dermot Bannon goes into battle with the plain people of Ireland in the cause of justice and light. Mainly light, to be honest. In his philosophy, there\u2019s nothing that can\u2019t be fixed by turning a wall into a window. He\u2019d build all of his houses from windows if he could. The man is a martyr to big windows.<\/em><\/p>\n

Explaining that Bannon:<\/p>\n

is creating a metaphorical window into the heart of the Irish people, who are for the most part entirely unco-operative, ungrateful and obsessed with dark holes fronted by classical pillars and filled with Ikea furniture \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

He also marvels at how:<\/p>\n

Ireland is the only country with a celebrity quantity surveyor. Patricia has no time for any of Dermot\u2019s nonsense, which is why we like her. He wants to double the size of his new house for just \u20ac350,000. The nation scoffs at this even before Patricia has a chance to say: \u201cNot a hope.\u201d In fact, we all say it along with her, panto style.<\/em><\/p>\n

As one of the jesters permitted to ply his trade in the national media, Freyne exposes RT\u00c9\u2019s consistent denial of shitness \u2013 which perhaps accounts for a prevalent uncooperativeness, ingratitude and obsession with dark holes \u201cfronted by classical pillars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the Irish landscape bears testament to the tragedy of the commons. It is a sad reality that most of what has been built since independence is inferior to what came before it.<\/p>\n

Moreover, a programme such as Room To Improve, and it\u2019s not the only one in this genre<\/span>, is devoted to the improvement of private dwellings in the possession of a shrinking middle class still transfixed by the ups and downs of the Irish property market. It is instructive that according to the website www.daft.ie<\/em><\/a> at the start of May, 2022 there are just over one thousand properties available to rent in all of Ireland<\/em> at a point when the Irish government has just committed to welcoming tens of thousands of refugees from Ukraine. Is it any wonder so many people are disinclined to have children.<\/p>\n

In essence Room to Improve translates into: how can someone increase the market value of their property. The lurking presence of the celebrity quantity surveyor ensures that any project is seen in terms of adding financial value to the holding.<\/p>\n

It is particularly tone deaf as we reach another high-water mark in an ongoing housing crisis. Missing on RT\u00c9 is serious engagement with the corruption of a planning process<\/a><\/span>, which lies behind enduring inequalities and sprawl, or the financial structures that embed generational inequalities, and permit a creeping dominance of transnational capitalism.<\/p>\n

It is not that housing dysfunction is denied on RT\u00c9 \u2013 that we are lied to as such \u2013 it is that the issues are almost completely ignored amidst the day-to-day mixture of light entertainment and vox pop nonsense that are their mainstays<\/a><\/span>. Room to Improve is a form of kitsch<\/em> because it denies the shitstorm going on in the society around it.<\/p>\n

And like the rest of their programming, it appears to rely to an ordinate extent on advertising from a motor car industry<\/a> that allows for the trail of bungalows that blight our landscapes. After all, living in one of the detached houses that Bannon mostly works on would be very difficult without a motor car.<\/p>\n

It also appears that RT\u00c9\u2019s longstanding tendency to bury shitness \u2013 which is also evident in legacy print media \u2013 led to the catastrophic handling of Covid-19 in Ireland.<\/p>\n

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With Irish media placing unprecedented focus on climate change during #COP26<\/a> we recall an unhealthy dependence on advertising revenue from the car industry that appears to influence transport coverage in particular.https:\/\/t.co\/wXx0LOgPVB<\/a>@think_or_swim<\/a> @WilliamsJon<\/a> @ian_lumley<\/a><\/p>\n

— CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) November 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n