
In the age of globalization, wisdom may be exhausted with wisdoms inter-pollinating, and twisting the wisdoms’ intents. Globalization is certainly causing tension in tradition-focused cultures. Science may also be eradicating the whole notion of wisdom. Foreign wisdom may at least call attention to perspectives from folks from other traditions or who are considered on the fringe of a tradition to which they offer perspective. In some cultures in the West tradition is generational at best. Wisdom may be a tall figure that gives comfort to folk or a culture, but it is also pathology of power that allows thinking to stop so that others may control.
When someone from outside or on the fringe of a culture contributes an observation that isn’t a tool for solving a problem in either her culture or the beneficiary’s culture, it isn’t wisdom so much as it is the beginning of shift paradigms in different segments of society. It is an insight that allows dialogue and education that may change a way of life for the world. If nothing else, the observation makes clear the predicament that a way of life faces.