A film that all should see:

Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality

It is a documentary on the work of Dr. Ernest Becker, author of the book The Denial of Death, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Current work based on his ideas can be found in research on Terror Management Theory.

The idea is that part of the human condition is our quest to seek immortality in the world of symbols as the exist within the context of culture, which provides us with stability in the face of uncertainty. This quest covers up our death anxiety, and when our culture becomes challenged, we are faced immediately with our mortality and our response is an animalistic fight or flight response. This is why social death - the violence committed to one's culture - normally consists of a violent response. Our own mortality comes into our presence when we are shown the fallibility of the immortality of our culture. A group of social psychologists from universities around the country have successfully tested the presence of an increased proclivity for violence after one is reminded of their own mortality. One example that is provided is how many Americans were vengeful after 9/11, and as such were irrational in their response. Not only were people killed in 9/11, but our cultural symbols of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked an destroyed. We're not too concerned when we hear of a couple of Americans being killed in a terrorist bombing in another country, but we become enraged when we see someone burning a flag.

For what it's worth, The Denial of Death turned up on Bill Clinton's top 20 book list, at least as far as the California Literary Review claims.