First, we should agree on what "the world" is. In this context, I think it safe to assume that you mean humanity, civilization, etc. The human existence.
In that context, since we don't dwell as the other primates do, one could make a compelling case for the power of a strongly ingrained belief system, and its ability to organize social behavior to cooperate and collaborate in achieving, quite frankly, some pretty damn astounding accomplishments for a bunch of hairless monkeys with the attention spans of crows.
HOWEVER.
Downside is that these social paradigms all have one thing in common. They all begin with a SMALL LOCAL group that grows successfully beyond its original social reach, due to containing the right social encouragement at the right time and the right place. By the way, encouragement is defined by both the carrot and the stick. Social pressure is what it is.
See, as it expands, it also acquires the snowball of reality outside of the bubble it was born in. What is wisdom and works in a desert is useless in the rainforest. The paradigm doesn't fit. Success is NOT guaranteed.
Something has got to change... or the story ends.
Now compound this challenge with the accumulation of knowledge over the span of time as well as space, as mentioned above.
If you refuse to use the information available to you, how can still call it wisdom?
If your paradigm resists including the wealth of knowledge and understanding gained by the collective whole of the human experience, you may want to reconsider.
