Witnessing a great event in history ?

[Robert Vermaat]

Do revolutions actually change something in the long run (other than names?), or is change brought about smoothly by scientific and cultural thought?

Yes to all three.
Changes need room to happen. If you need a revolution to create that room, it's a good thing. The French Revolution of 1789–99 certainly ended an archaic system (power of the aristocracy and the church) and brought about room for a lot of new things. Good things like democracy etc. But also Napoleon, the nation state and the rise of nationalism, suppressing of the regions and the ensuing cultural development of regional dress, so popular with tourists today. Or the killing of aristocrats, which in turn led to a large surplus of cooks who headed to the cities looking for new employment, which lead to the development of the restaurant (I'm not kidding).
But mainly it meant an enormous step in gaining self-consciousness for an entire people, and I see the same things happening in Egypt and Libya. The actual gains of such revolutions may be hard to predict and even harder to see on short notice though.