Is cinema the new metaphor?

American Heritage Dictionary sites metaphor as:

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).
2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven" (Neal Gabler).

If Hollywood has been chosen as a prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven, why can't it be chosen as a metaphor of life, since life is crass, materialistic, shallow, and craven?
In Hollywood we have an onslaught of ideas and integrities woven into a tapestry of life thinking in the now. Creations like Vincent Gallo's "Buffalo 66", Mike Hodges "Croupier" or the Bible are nothing short of the classic struggle of mans eternal quest for understanding in an ignorant universe.

Since the U.S. government, in their infinite wisdom, decided to eliminate the classics in our educational system, all we have to teach us the art of critical thinking is cinema and books. Since no one reads books anymore and TV has been taken over as the new brainwashing medium, we're left with movies as our social educators, which means we are being trained in critical thinking by crass, materialistic, shallow and craven assholes from the land of fruits and nuts... California.
Yes, that spiritual place where a lemon slice is in every glass of water to hide the particles in suspension, where no one smokes and people order yolk-free omelets in upscale restaurants. A place where city crime and pollution outrank reason.

And Hollywood sets the tone for humanity with their metaphor of cinema.

Crazy world, aint it?