Alessandro Cardente’s Manifesto for Gentle Communication

Awareness as the Origin of Kindness. Temporal Abstraction as a Mental Space of Freedom. The Contribution of Maria Malucelli.

By Federico Wardal

From the official presentation:

“In an era marked by aggression, individualism, and the abandonment of the fundamental values of human relationships, Alessandro Cardente proposes a seemingly simple yet profoundly radical revolution: the gentle revolution.”

Cardente explains:

“I wrote this book because I perceived a passive abandonment of values, behaviors, and feelings.”

Born in the 1970s, the author calls for respect, patience, care for others, and the value of a simple smile.

Moving through different periods and events of recent history, Cardente imagines addressing, from the year 2045, a young person born in 2026, a member of Generation Beta.

This narrative choice suggests something deeper than a journey into the future: temporal abstraction, a mental space of freedom.

Consider what happens during a conversation when our interlocutor steps away for a moment. Freed from the emotional intensity of their presence, we can reflect more clearly on what we were saying.

Abstraction ideally releases both participants from the emotional pressure of immediate confrontation.

Anger, conformity, and collective conditioning can cloud our judgment until we begin to see through the eyes of the group rather than our own.

A paradox thus emerges: Who will be less conditioned? The young person who will inherit the consequences of today’s decisions, or the adult who, having lived through another nineteen years of history, will attempt to free himself from his own conditioning?

It is not the future that guarantees clarity, but the ability to step outside the present in order to understand it.

Maria Malucelli: Kindness as an Achievement of Awareness

The insights of renowned psychologist Maria Malucelli bring an essential dimension to this reflection.

Kindness and the capacity to smile are certainly part of human nature, Malucelli observes, yet we do not always learn to recognize or express them. Parents, the first directors of our existence, play a decisive role in bringing these qualities to light through example and emotional education.

When this guidance is missing, awareness can help us recover what was never fully developed. But when does this awareness awaken?

Kindness is not merely polite behavior. It is an inner achievement: the ability to recognize our own mistakes, understand those of others, and free human relationships from the tyranny of pride and aggression.

This is where Malucelli’s psychological perspective meets Cardente’s gentle revolution: it is not enough to wish for a kinder world. We must become aware of the mechanisms that prevent us from being kind.

A Possible Connection with Nobel Laureate Pirandello: Theatre and the Freedom to Be Nobody and Everybody

This exploration finds a possible parallel in theatrical art and recalls Luigi Pirandello and his novel One, No One and One Hundred Thousand.

The actor steps outside his own identity to inhabit others, becoming, symbolically, nobody and everybody.

But theatre is a reciprocal mechanism: both actor and audience, through theatrical transformation, gain the opportunity to observe themselves from the outside — an essential element of awareness.

The spectator recognizes himself in the actor, while the actor confronts the spectator’s gaze. Both may discover contradictions, mistakes, and truths concealed by the immediacy of everyday life.

Even conscience itself can be questioned, since it too may be conditioned by education, fear, and conformity.

The Revolution Begins with Knowing How to Be

Cardente reminds us that knowing how to do is not enough: above all, we must know how to be.

The future is not an inevitable destination, but also the result of our choices.

And kindness, when born of awareness, can become a force capable of restoring, preserving, and sustaining human relationships.

Asked whether kindness will save the world, Alessandro answers with absolute conviction:

“Yes, of course it will!”

Perhaps his revolution begins precisely with our ability to step outside ourselves, observe who we are, and recognize in another person not an adversary, but an opportunity for understanding.

The year 2045 is not merely a date in the future. It is a mental space of freedom that we can learn to inhabit today.

I therefore believe that Cardente’s book could also inspire theatrical and visual productions.

A Final Reflection: From 2045 to 2048

During an international gathering at the United Nations headquarters in New York, J. Kirk Boyd personally dedicated to me his book 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together.

Boyd proposes a universal agreement for humanity to live together. Alessandro Cardente, in his Manifesto for Gentle Communication, addresses the transformation of behavior and language necessary to make such coexistence possible.

“There can be no new agreement among human beings without a transformation in the way they communicate.”

⸻

Book Details

Title: Manifesto per una comunicazione gentile (Manifesto for Gentle Communication)

Author: Alessandro Cardente

Publisher: Ultra Edizioni, Life Collection

Book Presentation: Friday, October 23, 2026

Venue: Mondadori Bookstore, Galleria Alberto Sordi, Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy

Guest Speaker: Maria Malucelli

Publication: 2026, 208 pages. EN translation is coming soon.