Solon cancelled Athens' debt, freed the slaves, and built the most principled political system the ancient world had seen. A tyrant walked through it in one generation. The economic design held. The political layer crumbled — principles without teeth are just intentions. Cleisthenes didn't start over. He fixed exactly what broke. Version one always fails. That's not the tragedy. The tragedy is mistaking the diagnostic for a verdict. https://open.substack.com/pub/brudpaints/p/version-one-al…