Modern Nihilism as Exemplified in 'Skins'.

To the unreflective eye, 'Skins' can seem to be a decadent and hedonistic abomination, preaching the apparent woes of teenage life. Yet, behind the facade, we gain a glimpse into the nihilism of immediacy.
I often feel that I am being somewhat self-absorbed when I wallow in modes of existential angst and despair. Thoughts drift through my mind relating to the advantage and wealth, to which I am so privileged to have, in comparison to those severely less fortunate. It is almost as if we are forced to be grateful just for our existence; things could be worse. It's true they could, but we can't go around pretending everything's fine, just because somewhere someone is having a tougher time. We can't just say, 'my life is an unending mediocre bore, lacking love and affection, but it doesn't matter 'cos someone else is worse off than me'. I don't mean to make light of, or demean those who starving and suffering, though this is how it may sound, I just don't want to feel unnecessarily guilty, and suppress our humanity, because we are better off.
So, don't be discouraged from meeting your anxiety. Matters of the self and life are one of the most important facets what it is to be human. We have the ability to become wonderful and magnificent creatures, only if we can find the opportunity and the courage to deal with our angst in the face of guilt. Yes, we are at an advantage that we can ponder life and ourselves without the constant struggle of survival, but that is something that must be embraced; that is something wonderful we have managed as humans. The time and ability to be able to create oneself, take control of oneself and cease to be the cog in the machine. That is at least what one would expect. With ease of living one can truly pursue who they are.
Yet, invariably, society still provides a machine in which someone is forced to be a mindless, insignificant cog. Life becomes a different struggle, a struggle for purpose, a struggle which is easily resolved by becoming a cog, that is merely doing what society expects from you. A purpose is a human's means to survive. without a purpose, one has no direction or cause. Yet, humanity, wrongly, thinks that a purpose must be concrete and external. We believe a purpose must govern us, whether through God or the judging eyes of our fellow citizens. Thus, wealth, power and morality are pursued as ends in themselves, as opposed to a means to an end, because humanity is chronically forgetful of the point of such human creations. These ends are pursued out context, instead they are pursued in virtue of some inherent worth that simply isn't there. What does it matter if you are wealthy, powerful or moral? What matters is the why, not the mere fact. Why are you moral? Is it because the universe, God or the rules say so? Or maybe, just maybe it is a human concern and not something wholly rational! The human is always given due disregard, odd isn't? We are just so in love with the absolutism of rules beyond ourselves. We think we cannot live or act unless the rules govern us on high, but we don't need these types of rules in order to make something meaningful or authoritative.

Yet, this is the norm of life. We do not question our basic assumption of absolutism, we leave our anxiety unchecked and merely bury somewhere where it can't bother us, and sink into a comfortable, structured existence. A structure that seems to be basic fact, a truth that need not be questioned; it's just so normal. Why get anxious about life unless you're some weirdo or rebel. "You want to experience more from life? What you don't want to just do what everyone else wants you to do? Idiot!" But of course no-one ever thinks they are doing what everyone else is doing, since everyone is so in tune with each other, so socialised and deluded that the notion of choice in certain aspects of life are unthinkable. Getting a job, buying a house, settling down, buying all the trinkets aren't seen as life choices, or a means to a satisfying, but things that must be done, whether they make you happy or not. Though, I must add, I do not propose that to live creatively you must forgo these choices, rather you must view them in the correct life. A job is more than just a necessity. The trick is to ask why, meet your anxiety, and not melt into obscurity and become a sheep, instead own your choices in order to live as full a life as you are capable, instead of wasting it on empty necessities.

This condition of life largely describes the adults/parents in the rather Kierkegaardian world of the cog vs the aesthete in 'Skins'. We have the duty bound adults obsessed with what ought to be done, impelling their view on their erratic, hedonist children They serve as a catalyst, or at least part of the problem, of the children's fall into immediacy. The classic case of non-conformity, where, as ever, absolutism is attempted to be beaten away with another absolute position. Humanity just can't help itself.
The important issue we are forced to deal with is, are the adults happy? They've done everything right surely? Nice house, good, kids etc. We are so eager to associate wealth and success as a platform upon which to engender happiness. Yet, we have portrayed here, in 'Skins, the somewhat clichéd but important notion that wealth and happiness do not guarantee happiness. This is only because this is the structure we live by. Structure deludes us into feeling happy, when all we feel is safety and security, the pangs of unfulfillment and stagnation may yet creep in. Though, of course, depending upon the capacity for honesty with yourself, you may yet remain in deluded contentment, never fully realising the source of your anxiety.

But, how are we to meet this anxiety? In unbridled immediacy, that living life in the moment, with sensuous pleasure? Disregard the structure completely? Well, the paradox we encounter in 'Skins' is the inadequacy and destructive nature of pure immediacy. The conflicts that occur spark a noticeable are of destruction. The life that is structured for us leads to slow and steady stagnation. Yet, pure immediacy impels us towards an unreflective life - life is lead in the present alone - everything is an object of aesthetic sensuousness. Sex becomes an object of pleasure, drinking a means to escape reflection, nights out a means to deny reality. One's structure falls apart altogether. The future is dashed against the cliff-side. True happiness, again, cannot be an end resultant from immediacy. Merely, one escapes a formal existence and from anxiety. Anxiety was the catalyst that propelled you from structure, yet your exodus becomes about hiding from life in sensuality. You become unbound because you think bounds are not possible. One's humanity crumbles away, until one becomes dionysus himself, the divine destructive will. It is only until one is faced with love, with the future, with the reality that one can neither survive in immediacy nor in structure. One desires both, yet both cannot co-exist it would seem. In love, you need structure, that is you need to live with someone, but be free at the same time. The mind cannot take and madness sets in. Again one is faced with their anxiety. Either you perish or sublimate.
So, Effy is our archetypal aesthete. Pure destructive willing at its best. Her unreflectiveness culminates in an orgy of sex drugs and raving. Somewhere within there was wisdom, the realisation of the futility of life - but it was a wisdom that did not flourish into the realisation that life can be justified by the creative power of humanity.
Ultimately, as the story in 'Skins' progresses, Effy is presented with raw human love. The positive energy flowed through her sending the Dionysus in her into a state of mad confusion. The anxieties of living were brought to bear. life was revealed, a life that was hidden by unreflective immediacy. Love forced her to face a human as a person, and not as an object of pleasure thus, she could not remain a malevolent force. Ultimately her mind perished, for she could not grasp life in her hands, as it had already become a nothing to her. It had becomes a mere means with no end and end with no means. Despair had swallowed her existence. Despair regained a daughter.

It is unfortunate that a revelation of life will remain unnoticed - the point remain unseen.

'Skins' will be seen largely as a drama and a tragedy satisfying audiences in ways they do not understand or ways they should not.