23 June 1789

On 23 June 1789, King Louis XVI decided to show who was the boss. The National Assembly disagreed.

J.M.Thompson's opinion is:

It soon appeared that the king's stand had come too late, and could only be maintained by arms. A display of force was, indeed, made: when the deputies arrived at the Parliament-house on June 23rd, they found it surrounded by troops. But this threat of violence, and the absence of the popular minister, served only to strengthen the spirit of resistance. Nor did the Commons now stand alone. On the previous day they had been joined by the Archbishops of Vienne and Bordeaux, at the head of a hundred and fifty clerical deputies. After listening to 280 speeches in five days, these representatives of the First Estate had at last decided to throw in their lot with the Third. Thus strengthened, the National Assembly was in no mood either to be intimidated or to be cajoled. (p.22)

...

Thus, in terms as clear as French could make them, the Assembly was reminded that it was only being allowed to play at reform. Louis could refuse to sanction what the deputies proposed: he could force them to accept what they disliked. He claims to have done everything hitherto by himself: he will, if necessary, dismiss them, and proceed alone. He will do for France what Frederick has done for Prussia, Catherine for Russia, Joseph for Austria. He will be the Benevolent Despot for whom the country has been waiting so long. (p.23)

Emphasis Mine

The French Revolution
By J. M. Thompson

Louis wanted to manage incremental change. The new Capitalists wanted to get the priviliged bludgers off their backs.

Historians, such as Thompson, reviled Louis as weak and indecisive. The system failed Louis by placing him in that position. A heriditary monarchy has only one path of succession. It cannot consider better candidates.

And yet the system expected the monarch to be far better because they are the monarch.

The evolution of French Feudalism has reached a dead-end in Louis XVI from a mob of lawless ruffians posing as lords of the castle to an ossified system of privileges that depended on the character of the monarch for its survival. (An 18th century version of the CEO myth.)

Even then, the Third Estate wanted to proceed incrementally. Revolution was not thought of yet. This was to change dramatically in the space of a few weeks.

The Third Estate were not intellectually prepared for what was about to explode. The American Revolution had been about a colony seeking self-government and ending up with independence.

The English Revolution had been almost rolled back by the Restoration. The ideals of the Levellers and others were too dangerous.

And yet, without class analysis, one must resort to conspiracy theories about secret societies controlling human destiny. There were secret societies because revoultionaries in an authoritarian state must work underground.

But the French Revolution was about people taking control of their destiny for a short time before the new ruling class wanted to stay in power instead of following the monarchy.

Tom Peters says to do it All At Once! He gives a good analogy of the difference between Reform (incremental change) and Revolution (change everything).

I'm an avowed incrementalist—even if the aim is stratospherically high. That is, get going ASAP—and quickly experiment your way toward/to success.

...

Between my little project and Wendy Kopp's Richter 8.0 project, and Dubai and Korea, I am pondering the circumstances when "do it all at once and figure out what 'it' is and how to do it on the fly" is the right answer. There is no doubt that such conditions exist—though the key, beyond the compelling dream, is the raw talent and energy and enthusiasm and obsession and resilience of the participants. It is 99.99% (or more) a matter of raw emotion—not a matter of analytically identifying a big opportunity, assigning "good people," and then proceeding based on state-of-the-art project management software.

Emphasis Mine

I suppose the Party should invest in some project management software??