New Delhi, April 19 -- "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

This is not a contrarian's bumper sticker. It is a precise diagnostic tool from a man who spent his career watching crowds believe terrible things with complete confidence. He wrote about it with barely concealed fury.

Mark Twain is not saying the majority is always wrong. He is saying something more unsettling. That majority agreement is exactly the condition that makes people stop examining their beliefs. Consensus is comfortable. And comfort, in his framing, is where thinking goes to die.

The word pause is doing the real work here. He is not asking you to defect from every popular position. He is asking you ...