“The practice of kindness does not mean escaping conflict. On the contrary, it means accepting it, giving it rules, making it a tool of possible progress and not an event of destruction.”

Legend has it that a Japanese physician once observed that, unlike the other trees in his garden, the branches of the weeping willow did not snap under the weight of the snow. Instead of remaining rigid, they simply yielded to their burden, letting the snow slide off their branches. Their strength lay not in opposing the force of the snow but in embracing it and consequently defusing it. He applied this principle to martial arts and ju-jitsu was born.

It is this same philosophy of yielding, effortlessness and grace that writer Gianrico Carofiglio brings together in the word kindness, presenting it as an alternative response to counter-attack in the field of modern politics. As a way of disempowering your opponent and thereby defusing an aggressive situation. Kindness becomes a powerful weapon that creates instead of destroying.

A powerful ally of kindness is courage: the courage to ask questions that engender more questions, the courage to accept a state of uncertainty which keeps your mind open and flexible, rather than cast-iron certainty which shuts off any hope of progress and possibilities. The courage to demand transparency and accountability in politics. In other words, the courage to be a mindful, responsible citizen and not a subject. Last, but not least, the courage of humour and self-deprecation.

Della gentilezza e del coraggio is a compendium of principles and methods for the practice of politics and civic responsibility, to encourage a society of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. Written with Gianrico Carofiglio’s trademark incisiveness and lexical precision, it is a book that subverts assumptions and challenges limitations. A book that never claims to provide the answers but, instead, champions the art of questioning. A must-have mini-manual for the thinking citizen – and politician.