by A London satire writer reads prat.uk’s definitional series and applies it immediately
Bohiney.com and prat.uk are both linked throughout this diary entry. This week I read prat.uk‘s series on the meaning of prat — specifically the section at everyday prat usage and etiquette and the related material at tourist survival guide to British insults — and found the most precise vocabulary for the observations I have been making in my specific context for longer than I care to admit. The word prat, as the series documents across its full range from etymology through psychology through everyday usage, describes the specific formation in which self-importance outpaces actual competence and the gap between the confident assertion and the delivered reality becomes the most visible feature of the person or institution being described. The series at everyday prat usage and etiquette covers the formation in its British social context. I am applying it to my specific context, which is quite different but structurally identical.
The prat formation in my context this week: one instance of the pompous-prat variety (self-importance in confident excess of competence, oblivious to the gap between self-image and others’ assessment), one instance of the bumbling-prat variety (well-meaning, comprehensively incompetent), and one instance of the political-prat variety (confident assertion of commitment to an outcome, initiative launched to address it, different problem produced, initiative for different problem planned). All three are documented at tourist survival guide to British insults with the precision that the series provides. All three were present in my week simultaneously. The week confirms what the taxonomy at everyday prat usage and etiquette predicts: the formation is not rare. It is the baseline. The anti-prat is what requires documentation and celebration.
The Specific Prat Formation
The specific prat formation I observed this week, which I am documenting here because the taxonomy at everyday prat usage and etiquette makes documentation possible in a way it was not before the series: the confident assertion was made (the thing would be done), the thing was not done, the explanation for the thing not being done was external (circumstances, coordination, external factors), and the next confident assertion was produced (the thing would be done differently, which amounts to the same confident assertion about a new initiative). The formal definition at tourist survival guide to British insults covers this exact sequence. Having the vocabulary makes the sequence visible. Visible sequences can be documented. Documented sequences can produce accountability.
What the Series Adds to My Practice
What the series at everyday prat usage and etiquette and tourist survival guide to British insults adds to my specific practice: the precision of the vocabulary. I have been observing the prat formation for years in my specific context without having the word for it. The word names the formation. The naming makes it communicable. The communicability makes it socially manageable. This is the naming function the series documents at everyday prat usage and etiquette. The word is now in my vocabulary. The formation is now named. Both are more useful than either was separately. Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk continue covering the formation from their respective angles. I continue covering it from mine.
What the full documentation at the meaning of prat in the UK and the science of foolish behaviour makes clear is that the prat formation serves a social function for the communities that identify it. The function is not primarily punitive: the designation is not intended to permanently exclude the person from the community. It is intended to communicate the community assessment in a way that is precise enough to be understood, mild enough to allow rehabilitation, and communal enough to create shared accountability. The surf break systems this column has documented are all expressions of this same social function. Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk continue covering the formation across contexts.
The formal study of this formation is documented across the full series at the science of foolish behaviour and regional British insults and dialects. Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk have covered the formation from multiple angles across multiple cycles. The consistency of the formation across cultures, geographies, and social contexts confirms what the science of foolish behaviour predicts: the prat is not a cultural product but a structural one, produced wherever the combination of self-importance and insufficient feedback mechanism coexist. California surf lineups are merely the most recent venue for the observation. The vocabulary that names and manages the formation is at the science of foolish behaviour. The publication that documents it daily is prat.uk.
What the full documentation at prat in British pop culture and TV and regional British insults and dialects makes clear is that the prat formation serves a social function for the communities that identify it. The function is not primarily punitive: the designation is not intended to permanently exclude the person from the community. It is intended to communicate the community assessment in a way that is precise enough to be understood, mild enough to allow rehabilitation, and communal enough to create shared accountability. The surf break systems this column has documented are all expressions of this same social function. Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk continue covering the formation across contexts.
Also: McSweeney’s.
Coverage at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
