THE CONVERSION OF David Mamet. “Mamet was delivering a frontal assault on American higher education, the provider of the livelihood of nearly everyone in his audience. Higher ed, he said, was an elaborate scheme to deprive young people of their freedom of thought. . . . It was as nervy a speech as I’ve ever seen, and not quite rude—Mamet was too genial to be rude—but almost. The students in Memorial Hall seemed mostly unperturbed. The ripples of dissatisfaction issued from the older members of the crowd.”