The McDonnell Group

by Marc Marton

My wife sees me reading the newspaper on weekends and will invariably ask, “Anything good going on in the world?”  For years now, my response back to her is usually, “Nope, all the news is bad.”

You have to wonder sometimes if the world today is experiencing an abnormal rate of convulsion compared to past decades or if people are just better at manipulating the ubiquitous media to make us think things are worse than they are.

Truly, the news in daily life today is predominantly bad.  Financial meltdowns, joblessness, terrorism, war, famine, a remake of “Dirty Dancing” – it’s utter horror out there.  But are things that bad?  Is bad news what we want to hear?  Has fear begun to shove aside qualities like optimism or curiosity in humans?

People have long figured out that you can get more attention and perhaps cash in by stoking fear with a steady stream of bad news or half-baked contrarianism from the fringe.  We’ll pay attention and most of us will dismiss it and go on…at least we hope so.   This viral video of a man stating that smart meters are nothing more than evil surveillance devices seems like pure paranoia, but compare him to what some of our political leaders/personalities spew on a typical day and you have second thoughts on what people will accept as truth.
 
Once upon a time in this country, a big initiative like smart grid symbolized progress, as it still should.  That hasn’t stopped the sociopaths from labeling smart grid as infringement on personal freedom or intrusion by big business or big government despite the overwhelming benefits a modernized grid will bring to society.  It’s just that the good news about smart grid has to fight from being drowned out by the more powerful negativity or bad information.  That has to change.

In April this year, there was yet more bad news about devastating tornados hitting communities across the country.  What people didn’t hear were cases like Alabama Power using meter data from its new AMI system to help prioritize recovery efforts and restore power more quickly and safely.

Far better to be vigilant than fearful.  Certainly, the industry will have to adopt high standards for cyber security as warned by NERC to defend the energy infrastructure from compromise.  Consumers have a right to expect that their smart meters will not be a gateway to intrusion.  What we can’t do is allow the misinformed or misguided among us create a paralysis.

On those days I tell my wife about the news in the paper being bad, I’ll usually try to find at least one positive story.  You have to hunt, but they’re there.  Somehow, the bad news seems to keep us occupied day to day but seeking out the good news is what keeps us going.