some good things happened as a result of the french revolution. Sometimes a revolution NEEDs to happen in order for a slower but persistent and endless level of oppression and rampant structural abuse to be fixed. The revolution produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, setting a wbenchmark for civil liberties that we still go by. It abolished the feudal system and the social injustices, starvation, and brutalities that persisted. It erased forced labor practices of the corvee-- where peasants had to spend a portion of their time laboring for their lord-- essentially a period of hard labor slavery. Lords could force peasants to do extra labor at their whim, and the peasants were bound to drop everything and do as they were told, without pay. It enabled equal representation under the law, where before the revolution birth and wealth were the measure of the availability of justice. It also pulled back the power of the church in France, which was full to bursting with rampant corruption, decadence, and brutal abuse.

The heads of the elite were well worth the trouble, it was the death of the starving and oppressed peasants that was the real cost. Those rich fucks and corrupt rapist priests had it coming and then some. The vast majority of the deaths were due to the elite and their forces attacking peasants and employing scorched earth tactics in fear, around famine and bankruptcies, and the loss of feudal authority. If the people had been more savage in coming after the elite, some of the needless deaths could have been avoided. The years of famine, ill treatment by government and bankruptcies made “the Great Fear” that started it unavoidable and inevitable. Lots of interesting parallels to the US now eh? Although we’re pretty far from being gangs of starving rabble yet. Still a ways to go but we’re on our way.