Why not both?

Surely proponents of the guillotine must know that eventually the revolution eats its own?

But the fear of revolution might make the surviving oligarchs in neighbouring polities think twice.

'Pour encourager les autres', and all that.

While unfortunate, it still seems like ultimately a net positive (in at least several major moral calculi) even for the smallest ratchet down of the projections?

"eventually the revolution eats its own?"

All major nafions, France, Britain and US, famously obtained their freedomz through bloody revolutions.