The message the doc makers wanted to make that we do what we do out of fear of death. That's just like those psychs. who think everything we do has to do with sex. Good arguement, but in my opinion lacks much. They never touched why knowledgeable people continue to kill themselves daily with addictions or those who do crazy things to defy death. How about those who choose not to have children or have no desire to have them or be around them? Some find an expiration date on their lives welcoming. I personally have more fear of my death being painful than actually dying and I know I am not alone in this statement. Humans are complex. Why we do the things we do is just as confusing. We cannot simply generalize the ALL.

Eventually what at first blush seems an interesting way to explain certain aspects of human behavior becomes a tedious ideology of its own. What seems ironic is how *certain* these people seem. Ironic because they claim to believe that such certainty is caused by an unconscious but all-pervasive "death-denial". Which means they are doing what they point to others as doing. Perhaps a bit of projection (and I know, I know...I open myself up to the same accusation, as do you if you accuse me of doing so, ad infinitum). The difference being that I do not claim to have any all-pervasive *single* explanation about why we humans do what we do. My best guess is that there are many different reasons, from biology to individual upbringing to culture and on and on.The insidious part of single-minded theories is that they can tend to produce the very narrow mindedness that it critiques. For example, would a denial of "death-denial" as an all-encompassing explanation itself be explained by this theory as an example of death-denial (as I am doing right now?). It very well could. I see this as the danger of most single-minded -isms i.e. Marxism, Feminism, postmodernism etc. I would suspect that few of those interviewed would want to acknowledge this fact. For example, the interviewee with the "Mad magazine" baseball cap points out that the film-makers themselves are engaging in an immortality quest. Isn't he simply doing the same?Perhaps I protest too much. But If the theory of "death-denial" is right then those who engage in it are simply acting the way the theory predicts they will. That is like all other aspects of human life it undermines as mere veils to our fear of death e.g. politics, law, religion etc. I would have to guess the theory itself ultimately undermines the theory. That is, these speakers are merely acting in ways their culture lead them to believe will gain them status so they can achieve symbolic immortality and engage in death-denial (and, the theory would say, right now so am I. So why listen to me? Or anyone?). So why should I listen to them? Or have they transcended what the rest of us are so deeply mired in?What is one interesting aspect of the human dilemma, by virtue of extending to an all-encompassing explanation, collapses under its own contradiction.