Consequences of reading Chapter 2

Reading through the 2nd chapter has filled me with an acute nostalgia for my days in college. My Professor of Literature, while taking the regular class, suddenly interrupted his own lecture and started talking about reality and its human perceptions. He said, " The people are living in an environment that was created by themselves". It basically means that rules or ethics being followed by the humans, was actually created by themselves. He proceeded explaining his point of view saying that rights and wrongs were defined and classified by humans, particularly a single scholar,  and it was in the sole discretion of this person to segregate them according to his perceptions. This was the guy who said pain is bad and joy is good, killing is a crime, and also defined a new term called 'shame'. Later on, my Professor ignited our imagination asking us to picture a world without these beliefs and perceptions. I started to think how chaotic things would be, but then how free the world would be with no obligations.

I think that the Kantian approach is very much similar to this. They speak about universal laws, which were actually postulated by humans themselves. A Kantian approach to the recent shootings in the United States universities leads us to an anecdote. Apparently, the weapons that were used in the Northern Illinois University and the Virginia Tech University shootings were actually bought from the same store. So, do we infer that all shootings arise from the weapons sold in this particular store?? Heath Ledger was autopsied and his death was concluded to have occurred from the fateful mix of his six medications, and not suicide. But, isn't almost every shocking death in Hollywood or the music industry occurs due to mixing or overdose of some fateful product or the other? And, can this be categorized as almost a suicide?? Some food for thought.