Crosmando: I don't think anyone would speak in favor of the French Terror, but I think you're rather naive in thinking that political violence is always evil. The French Revolution, although it went off the rails, essentially was the last nail in the coffin of feudalism and moved Europe and the world toward republican and democratic forms of government.
The reality of human history is that no ruling elite ever gives up power peacefully.
Also, the current world system is hardly "democratic" because those with the most capital (wealth) can influence politics far more than the common people can.
There's always a sediment of violent potential especially among youths which is easily channelled into political agendas. But most people simply want to live in peace and are rather docile, so for violence, actual uprising and riots becoming widely spread, it requires a deep feeling of destitution (like a famine), frustration (powerlessness) and/or injustice (BLM and the likes) that overpowers the natural drive of self-preservation (rioting is dangerous...). Once set loose, excess behavior (rape, pillage, lynchings) often is the result, but the real terror of often directed from the background by people with much cooler heads -
seizing the opportunity to get rid of the competition and claim power for themselves. That's the time of show trials, where the former rulers are made scapegoat for the failings of the previous system and sacrificed on the executioners' blocks in the name of change. There is a religious component to it, and the ritualised bloodshed and show helps to establish the new order.
The best revolutions have achieved is to have the new rulers make concessions - to prevent the next uprising following right in it's own footstep. That's basically the origin of the welfare state - it's not in place because the "elite" are so kind of heart, it's there to prevent destitution from becoming so pressing that people broadly feel the need to rise up against the ruling classes.
That's a really broad and complex topic, but the economic decision between "increase military/police presence" and "lower taxes and/or invest into
panem et circenses" to prevent uprisings and revolutions that many 4X games boil down to is quite down to the matter.