> Listening to the podcast about the French revolution and the revolutionaries mull that over for a long while ...

It's really hilarious that the French revolution is so often used as an example: it basically coincides with France losing its status as the world's 1st superpower (rankings are imperfect but it's often estimated that when Napoleon, not long after the french revolution, got its arse handed to him by the brits, France lost its number one spot). Where's France now? The mighty superpower that was "number one" when it had kings? There's not much of its superpower left (it still has got the nuclear weapon and luxury brands/products like L'Oreal / LVMH / Champagne but that's about it [1]).

[1] the delicious irony in having a socialist country surviving thanks to exporting luxury items and thanks to rich tourists visiting the country's old castles (!) is not lost on me