A Foreshadowing of Sorts...

One of the most frequently argued points Edmund Burke makes in his Reflections on the Revolution in France was that social and political reform should be gradual, not instant.  Not only should this change be gradual, but change based on abstract concepts such as liberty should not be based on such, as this "liberty" and "the rights of man" could later be used for leverage by a tyrant in a future upheaval fueled by an uncertain revolution in France under shaky leadership, at best.

The reason this argument is such a strong argument is simple; this argument has been proven to be true, not only in France but also in other parts of the world.  There are concrete examples of how abstract principles can obstruct the true goals of revolution, and these examples exist in France, Germany, and other tyrannies throughout the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.  The same reason that France in the 19^th century and Germany in the 20^th century were later embroiled in a mutinous tyranny was also foretold in Reflection as the disorder these countries found themselves in allowed the army to become divided with factions and cliques and from this army divided would come a popular general (Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler), whose popularity and political leadership would propel him to be the new leader of the country.