Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
Best of MM#217--A Nefarious Plot & Movie, The End of America and How To Win Forever
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Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Theory to Action Podcast Weekend Show will not be airing this week. We appreciate your understanding and continued support of the program. In the meantime, please enjoy this Best of the Mojo Minutes—a short, timely segment created to keep our community inspired and engaged until the weekend show returns.
Please enjoy this Best of MOJO Minutes #217 which aired March 23, 2023.
We hope to return to the Weekend Show next weekend!
Thank you in advance for your understanding!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Theory to Action podcast weekend show will not be airing this week. We appreciate your understanding and continued support of the program. In the meantime, please enjoy this best of Mojo Minutes, a short timely segment created to keep our community inspired and engaged until the weekend show returns.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.
Speaker 3:Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Last week, we introduced the book A Nefarious Plot by Steve Dace to you, and now we're finally at the day where we can share this book with you. So do you ever find yourself questioning the meaning and consequences of everyday decisions and how those choices shape our lives? That is exactly how I can best frame this discussion of a nefarious plot to you. Plot to you, and it brings into focus that modern context of the old CS Lewis classic, the Screwtape Letters, which we have covered in Mojo Minute 95 and then in last week's Mojo Minute 214, the Whole Philosophy of Hell. So if you want more of that, be sure to check out those episodes and even more so if you really want some more, we do a deep, super deep dive in the Mojo Academy, where we have that Academy review audio Academy review of it the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. So if you want to be a member, be sure to click on the description in the show notes to get the details, or you can jump over to teammojoacademycom under the member section to get those same details there as well. Now, incidentally, steve Dace, who wrote the book Nefarious Plot? He wrote it way back in 2016. He wrote it way back in 2016. Even more compelling was that the first draft was finished by the fall of 2015. And so this was far in advance of the rocky 2016 presidential campaign and its kickoff and it's kickoff. And, ironically, I hadn't even discovered the Steve Dace show or Steve Dace himself or his radio program as of the fall of 2015,. Which is even more spirit filled, because there are many of us that discovered the Steve Day show because Steve was Ted Cruz's principal guy in Iowa for the 2016 presidential contest and not because he was the author of this book A Nefarious Plot, but that can be a nugget for another day, because sometimes our Lord puts things into our lives that you think you're attracted to for one reason or another and then, over time, you slowly figure out that there is a different type of richness there and there is a truth beyond what you originally perceived in the beginning, and that has been my experience with the Steve Day Show. Now I have family members who listen passionately to Steve, and the work Steve did throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, where he was one of the leading opponents to lockdowns and masks and vaccines, was frankly eye-opening, because he's just a lay guy, not a doctor, and he was literally just following the data. Just a lay guy, not a doctor, and he was literally just following the data. Just a lay person, not an expert. But he would reach out and bring on many, many doctors onto his program and ask them detailed question after detailed question, and have data that was leading him to certain conclusions, and he wanted those conclusions to be verified. So he would ask a litany of questions all around it, and nevertheless, we can talk about those issues later, because he has another great book that just came out, and we're going to cover that one too. But back to the story at hand.
Speaker 3:A nefarious plot, what is it not? That's probably the best way to describe it. It is not like the screw tape letters, as in a series of letters written from one devil to another, and we're able to listen in to hear the crosstalk of the devils of the devils. Now, what it is, though, is a narrative form, the devil telling you directly no-transcript how do you like those apples? It's so well-written and there are so many nuggets of wisdom that if I were to bring them all to you over the course of three or four or five different mojo minutes, I think our nets would break there. They would just be too heavy of nuggets of wisdom, but nevertheless we're going to try. They would just be too heavy of nuggets of wisdom, but nevertheless we're going to try. So with that introduction, let us go to our first pull quote so you can hear a nefarious plot.
Speaker 3:Yet when it came time to take down America, the secret to my eventual success was hidden in plain sight. While I've always been good at playing to the vanity of the individual, I never tried it corporately against a culture. When other great empires collapsed, they did so because we had ruined so many individuals in positions of influence that the culture could not withstand the sheer weight of their hefty baggage. So they took the entire civilization down with them. But you, america, you are a horse, or shall I say an eagle, of a different color.
Speaker 3:Your founding fathers, for all their faults, earnestly attempted to devise a civilization that would overcome your fallen nature, including their own. Those walking sacks of meat actually studied our playbook. They wanted to learn from history, so they didn't repeat it, and a few of your founding fathers never repented for their sins and have since joined us. Down here. We make sure to beat them with an extra special brutality for all the problems the nation they spawned has caused us. How about that writing the nation they spawned has caused us? How about that writing?
Speaker 3:Your founding fathers, for all their faults, devised a civilization that would overcome your fallen nature. And here's our first nugget of wisdom those walking sacks of meat actually studied our playbook. How interesting is that line? How did our founding fathers actually study the devil's playbook? Well, they looked back and saw how other empires collapsed and asked the question why did they collapse? They looked at Greece, they looked at Rome, they looked at the vile corruption of the British Empire that they were escaping at the time, and then they devised a system of checks and balances. Let's go back to the book. They put in checks and balances in place that made it difficult for us to play to the passions of one particular demographic or leader, which has worked so well for us so many times down through the ages. They put it in a scheme in place that allowed the common day labor to just have as much say so in his government as the man born to privilege. So the class warfare that had been working for us going back to the days of feudalism was no longer in play. And then they actively invited the pardon me, the church I can barely say the word without swallowing my own detestable bile to be an active participant in guiding force in civic and family affairs. So the decadence we used to undo Rome wasn't an option, at least not at the start. But eventually we would get there once.
Speaker 3:I figured you out More on that later. To figure you out I had to turn to your greatest strength as a people and what it was that made you such a pest to those of us down here against you. Once I did that, you graciously started playing right into our hands. Ah, you see, another nugget of wisdom. Our structure of government, with its checks and balances to balance out and diffuse our power across many institutions and peoples, allowed grace to work within it. God's grace Not for it to be corrupted by it, by the power I mean. It's another nugget of wisdom to be noted of.
Speaker 3:Let's go back to the book, or should I say let's go back to the devil talking. This brings us to you. You are a people forged from the philosophies that, um, well, defeated there I said it, the Dark Ages. Your founders took the best of two social reform movements, the Reformation and the Renaissance and fused them into one culture. Your founders, despite their many flaws oh I could tell you some stories somehow managed to create a civilization that was not dominated by either the church or the state, two institutions we've had a pretty easy time corrupting down through the eons. This complementary relationship between church and state, which put each institution in its own jurisdiction as opposed to vying with one another for supremacy, allowed what you called liberty to be born and flourish.
Speaker 3:Make no mistake, we absolutely loathe liberty. Make no mistake, we absolutely loathe liberty alongside redemption, repentance, holiness, grace, mercy, obedience it's one of our seven deadly words down here. We don't mind freedom as much, because there's a word that's more easily distorted, but liberty. Liberty is something altogether more hostile to our plans for you, because liberty presupposes there your base nature of selfishness and vanity. We oppose with all of our might down here. Did you catch that last nugget of wisdom? Let me spin it back to you. The devil says make no mistake, we absolutely loathe liberty, alongside redemption, repentance, holiness, grace, mercy and obedience. It's one of our seven deadly words down here. We don't mind freedom as much because that word is more easily distorted. But liberty is something altogether more hostile to our plans for you, because Liberty presupposes there must be accountability, personal responsibility and integrity within a society and in institutions for a people to be truly free. Liberty Liberty the devil in his minions hates Liberty. It's one of the very reasons why we created the Liberty Minute. Didn't get the inspiration from this book for the Liberty Minute, but all of Christian theology puts this very concept of liberty at the heart of the matter, which is another reason why I found this book riveting and compelling, because the author, steve Dace, nails some of the theology in it.
Speaker 3:Now, interestingly enough, let me share a little bit more with you about this movie that has come out inspired by this book. The movie title is Nefarious and I'll put a link into the show notes for you. The plot is this of the movie On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon. Gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon and further claims that, before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own. That comes to us from imbdcom, the great movie resource. So thank you, imbd. Now the movie is going to come out April 14th 2023. It was directed by Chuck Colesmon and it has some good actors in it Sean Patrick Flannery, who plays Nefarious, and he is best known for his role in the movie the Boondock Saints, which didn't do well in the theaters, I believe, but back in the day, like way back in the day, like blockbuster video back in the day, it got kind of a cult following with domestic video sales. And then Jordan Belfi plays Dr James Martin, the psychiatrist, who is perhaps best known for his roles in HBO's Entourage where he played the nemesis to Ari Gold.
Speaker 3:Now, nefarious Plot, or Nefarious rather, the movie. It's essentially a horror film. But what I wanted to share with you is, in the promotion of the movie, steve Ace, who wrote the book that inspired the movie. He has a regular radio show and podcast and on that podcast Steve had a real-life exorcist. The show actually aired on February 28th and I'll put a link in to our show notes for you to check out that podcast. But the exorcist was Father Carlos Martins, who actually and ironically I guess host his own podcast and the title you could probably guess is the Exorcist Files.
Speaker 3:Now I got to give a hat tip to a long-time listener of this podcast, kevin, because Kevin has been telling me about the Exorcist Files. He's like you got to listen to this. This is good stuff and I kept putting it off and I was busy and I already have 8,000 other podcasts in addition to creating and doing maintaining my own podcast. But the Exorcist Files is quite good. I've listened to probably four or five different episodes now.
Speaker 3:And a brief background about Father Carlos is he is the official exorcist on two continents, both North America and Europe, and because the Holy See had been watching the ever-increasing dechristianization of Western society and Christendom crumble for the last 50 plus years, they asked Father Carlos to help the church by providing a catechesis around the church's teaching regarding the demonic, around spiritual warfare and around exorcism. It sounds familiar, doesn't it? Because we talk regularly on this podcast about the dechristianization of our culture and, in fact, even more so about the crumbling of Christendom and our culture. Now the Exorcist Files podcast is taking off as a podcast. It's gained a super uber following very quickly, especially within Catholic circles. In fact, just six days after the release of the first podcast and doing the research on it, it reached number one on the Spotify religion and spirituality category. It's among the top podcast overall on Apple podcasts.
Speaker 3:Now Father Carlo sat down for an interview with the National Catholic Register. That's a great website and he talked about why the podcast was needed and other details around the podcast. I'll put a link in the show notes to that interview. It's really good to give you some background. But here's the nugget of wisdom I wanted to share with you from the podcast that Steve Dace did with when Father Carlos joined him, and it was especially around the movie Nefarious. Let's go to that transcript from the Steve Dace show.
Speaker 3:Steve Dace asks Father Martins at the end of the interview. Final question I want to ask you. Forgive me, it's a bit self-serving, but my understanding is that you have actually watched, or had a chance to watch, my movie Nefarious. Is that true, father Martins? Yes, I have watched it, steve Dace. What do you think, father Martins? Extremely well done, very well done, and here's what was well done about it.
Speaker 3:What was captured within the film is exactly the kind of conundrum that the devil always wants to put us in a conundrum with, where you're damned if you do or damned if you don't. Damned if you do or damned if you don't. So, no matter where you run, you're always running into the same corner where the predator, the devil, can come and get at you. So the only solution in attempting to do things the only solution is attempting to do things in Christ's way is attempting to do things in Christ's way. Christ alone has the wisdom that the devil does not, the enemy does not, and so I was very, very impressed with the way you presented that conundrum, the way that he exercised his preternatural power in terms of just intellectual prowess. And the devil has to know where all the chess pieces are on the board. And he does, and he moves them accordingly that he's always 53 moves ahead of you. You do something and then there's a piece there that is already anticipating your movement in a period. That was well done, that was very well done.
Speaker 3:This is an aspect of the devil that any and every exorcist encounters constantly, and that is what you're up against every time. You're not up against moving chairs, you're not up against coming into the room. I mean, you're up against those types of things, but those are not the opposition, right? I could care less if the room was hot or cold. I could care less if the room was filled with a foul smell. I could care less if the lights was hot or cold. I could care less if the room was filled with a foul smell. I could care less if the lights are flickering on and off, if there's furniture levitating and stuff like that. That doesn't stop me from doing my job. What will give me pause?
Speaker 3:What I have to reckon with, are the circumstances by which the devil is present, that he's going to guard over those, because he has a hold that is strong over his victim, and that was presented in the movie. It's a very, very well presented. And the victim can't speak. And so now there's a battle between the exorcist and the demon, and he's got to get the demon to surrender the knowledge of who he is and what he is. The demon, of course, is not glad to do that and he's going to present an opposition as much as he can. So the battle is on, and then Steve Day sends the interview. He says that's very high praise, very, very high praise. Thank you, father. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:We appreciate that, appreciate that you took the time to watch it and even more appreciative that you appreciated the integrity by which we approach the project, to not take it lightly but to create, yes, a product that is entertaining but it is impactful at the same time. So then he asked Father Martin's what's the best way that our audience can follow up with your work, and what would you have them do other than, of course, subscribe to your podcast, the Exorcist Files? And then Father Martin responded well, certainly, I will take all the prayers we can for our work. You know we are a party of Christ and we benefit from the prayers from one another. So your listeners could do that for me and most especially for our victims, and I would also be grateful if they could certainly subscribe to the podcast and give it a listen. If it's not your cup of tea, that's okay, you can just omit it, but please do pass on the word and share, because I think the kingdom of God is furthered when we discuss about these things in an appropriate manner. And so at today's Mojo Minute, if I could ask you, please check out the Exorcist Files podcast, because I agree with Father Carlos that the conversation is advanced when we understand how absolute evil works. So I think that is a good thing. Again, a hat tip to Kevin, our longtime listener of this podcast. He told me about the exorcist file way back when it came out, but it took me this long to start listening, but I'm now a regular, so good on you, sir.
Speaker 3:So, to wrap up, america, as we have known, is trending towards the ash heap of civilizations. It's culture is getting depraved, paganism is on the rise, but you, as a human soul, don't have to go that way. You are made for greater things, eternal things. So please know that, despite how awful and evil the world gets around you, especially in this country, there is a saving grace, and if you repent and ask for that saving grace, you too can hear the most beautiful words this side of heaven. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master, and that is how you win forever.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.