If mass culture can use it, its usefulness grants it merit. History seems to spin a tale of humanity out of control warfare as a seasonal sport, the insatiable miserliness of human avarice it is an occasion for surprise that anything of excellence survives. These pop-up books do simplify the process of allowing the elders to pass on their prejudices to the offspring, pass on the myth of a magically united and superior society, and pass on the sacred Western Canon. The major difference between the wise and the wisdom challenged is that the former have an inkling of the source of their angst. The ignorant hurt just as much but they have less of a notion of who is hurting them, with what, and why.
Mass culture is what it is because the masses prefer it.
We prefer it because it is easier to obtain. Besides, our tastes are not superior to those of the lower classes, just more attractively packaged and more hypocritical. The test of time also has to cope with the ravages of real progress and with the notion that real progress is more than change, it is change with a purpose. Progress is change that is going somewhere, or, to speak in the jargon of the philosopher, change is teleological. The characteristic of the moment is that the mediocre mind, aware of its own mediocrity, is bold enough to affirm the rights of mediocrity and to impose them everywhere.