In a world that seems to go a little more mad every day, sanity often comes from the places you expect it least.

In response to the flurry of criticism and wild accusations aimed at him in the last week, rock star Marilyn Manson has decided to cancel the last five dates on his current tour out of respect for the victims of the Littleton shootings, according to The Associated Press.

“It’s not a great atmosphere to be out playing rock ‘n’ roll shows, for us or the fans,” Manson said in a news release Tuesday.

Though he blames ignorance, hatred and easy access to guns for this tragedy, he has decided to act in the interest of the greater good and for that we salute his judgment in favor of simple decorum.

The last concert was Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids. There, some members of the citizenry have been up in arms about having the “shock-rocker” in their town possibly messing up their kids’ heads.

Five Seasons marketing director, Tammy Koolbeck told callers that they were welcome to protest the concert, but the concert would go on as planned, according to The Associated Press.

This is a reasonable decision. No one would have blamed the Five Seasons for taking the easy way out and cancelling the concert on security grounds.

When everyone around you is acting mad, sometimes the safest thing to do is go along with the crowd.

On the one hand, we have the rock star taking the heat for this mess deciding that the best thing to do under the circumstances is to back off and not let the situation get out of control.

Pretty tame stuff for a “shock-rocker,” eh?

If Marilyn Manson were the kind of guy everyone believes him to be, he would be milking this event for all it’s worth.

It’s free publicity at the very least and many of his fans would probably like it if he took a stand against the strident voices of milk-fed middle-Americans.

But he didn’t and that took more guts than going on stage and facing the protesters.

On the other end of the spectrum we have the representatives of middle-America standing up and saying they would not give in to the hysteria.

“It is not our position to censor what comes into this building,” Koolbeck said in an Associated Press story.

Good for her. The voices crying out for a judas goat to lay the sins of our respective communities upon have grown too loud in recent years. It is good to see that common sense still exists in the Heartland.