A lifelong-unfailing ultimatum tactic finally backfired catastrophically

Evidence

But Moses’ arrogance led him to push the Governor too far. He sought to make him surrender, not gracefully but unconditionally—by using his ultimate weapon, the ultimatum that had never failed him before. … This time, however, the ultimate weapon misfired. After thirty years of issuing that defiant challenge, he had issued it to a man who would take him up on it. On the day after he received Robert Moses’ resignation, Nelson Rockefeller accepted it. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4380

Categorization

• XREF: The career-long pattern of the resignation ultimatum bringing governors to heel (chs. 24, 35, 45, 46) now ends — a dramatic payoff of a thread running throughout the book. — connects to: Moses’ feared public support had long since evaporated without political insiders noticing — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4397; Commitment strategies require communication and risk provoking stalemate — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 77; Public commitment makes future fulfillment costly to renege on by invoking present social constraints (+2 more)
• APHORISMS: A strategy never tested against real resistance has never been truly proven; habits formed only in favorable climate can misfire fatally.

Broader Connections

• Catastrophic stalemate can result from momentary dominance failure rather than organic crisis #expands (0.78)
• Commitment strategies require communication and risk provoking stalemate #qualifies (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 77
• Commitments are often manufactured by removing one’s own control over action #complicates (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 714
• Public commitment makes future fulfillment costly to renege on by invoking present social constraints #qualifies (0.72)