The Abandonment of Route 66: An Emblem of ‘Societal Absurdity’

Introduction - The History of Route 66

Since its founding in 1926, Route 66 has cemented its legacy in the minds of Americans as a cornerstone of our very culture. When the classic sign is shown anywhere in the modern day, a fond nostalgia is cast upon the viewer, thoughts of its famous landmarks, the freedom of the open road, and the great expanse of the states themselves invoke a wholesome sense of pride. But today, if you tried to visit that incredibly significant and famous stretch of road, it's… a hollow experience, with attractions shut down and stretches of highway gone unmaintained, the Route is a shell of its former self. The America it was built for has cast it, and national infrastructure like it, to the curb. The various reasons for this abandonment and what it represents are enlightening for the state of the country, and begin to uncover the shift in our collective attitudes, which is necessary to come together as a people and rediscover our unity.

During its heyday across the early 20th century, when Route 66 truly cemented itself in the hearts of Americans from Maine to California, infrastructure in the United States had an entirely different character and identity than it does today. In an article published on May 22nd, 2024, by the activist group ‘Transportation for America’ titled “What happened to U.S. Passenger Rail?” The prevalence of passenger rail as late as January of 2026 was expansive, with lines serving passengers more than 6 times a day at the population epicenters. From Los Angeles to New York, the public could rely on a rail system to connect them into a tangible national community. While Route 66 was more individual than the packed cars of passenger rail, its popularity was emboldened by Americans' increased ability to get to it, enabled by rail itself. The independence and freedom embedded in the experience Route 66 offered to travelers across the United States served to accelerate the growth of popularity and business along the infamous highway.

Figure 1: A Route 66 Sign, Johan Van Geiji, Pexels

The symbolism of Route 66 is directly tied to the concept of the American Dream. Time and time again, when depicted in popular media, the two are paired together. The classic scene of a mustang or top-down convertible ripping down the open road in Death Valley, passing by the iconic sign, is a direct visual analogue for the driver’s freedom and independence. Expansive automotive travel, which is enabled on interstate highways, proliferated more systemically following the popularity of Route 66 itself. Being able to go anywhere, no matter how far, without needing to rely on anything but one’s ability to drive, is exactly the kind of independence American culture fundamentally relies on. The many features of the automotive industry represent the subconscious values of the early 20th-century American consumer. Inefficiency and inequity as a cost of sweeping individuality and personal ownership are stark reminders of what we have been willing to forfeit to feel unique. One of the major ways in which Route 66 stood apart from its successors was in this very vein of car culture in the 40’s and 50’s, as opposed to the mass marketing of modernity, Route 66 was littered with independent businesses with unique services and designs that became attractions within themselves along the famous roadway.

Today, the Route is a shell of its former self, with only parts of the road indicated as ‘Historic Route 66’ after being decommissioned in 1985. Almost all of the gas stations, stores, and attractions that were once a staple of the Great American Southwest have shuttered their doors from a lack of business to sustain them. The novelty and soul of Route 66 were cast to the side by the cold efficiency and comprehensive development of the Interstate Highway System under Eisenhower at the height of the Red Scare in 1956. A network laid down across the country for a dual purpose, cultural erasure of the other, obliterating historic black and brown neighborhoods to further marginalize those deemed as ‘less than’, and weaponizing the expansive geographic nature of the country with infrastructure optimized not for interconnected community or the common public, but for militarized response to threats both foreign and domestic. With only 29 years between the establishment of the highway system and Route 66 being decommissioned. It becomes clear that the interstate highway system was instrumental in both the abandonment of Route 66 and the decline in the use of passenger rail, which is cited as the primary cause of passenger rail going private and diminishing over time under Amtrak’s leadership.

Albert Camus and Walking Away from Meaning

At around the same time in France, a particular young writer was becoming a treasured figure following the Nazi occupation of the country during World War 2. Albert Camus (1913-1960) gained prominence for his ability to present his profound ideas through both works of gripping fiction as well as academic essays and poignant political manifestos. From regularly writing for the underground resistance journal ‘Combat’ to his work in Existential Philosophy in a very secular France, his words inspired the public across Europe. For some context on his views and their place in the Western Philosophical Canon, it's important to understand some groups and terms. Since the Enlightenment, philosophers fall into one of two general categories before specifying any further, these are as follows: Analytic and Continental. Analytic Philosophers are easy to spot for their use of formal logic and syllogisms. They set everything out to the reader in the form of prepositions and conclusions. A famous example uses Socrates and proves his mortality: Preposition 1: All men are mortal. Preposition 2: Socrates is a man. Therefore Conclusion: Socrates is mortal. By contrast, Continental Philosophers tell stories and illuminate their ideas through metaphor, symbolism, and other forms of literary evocation. Albert Camus was categorically continental, as is evident by his use of fiction and narrative to communicate his ideas to his audience.

But what were those ideas? 

As mentioned above, Camus wrote within a tradition of Existential Philosophers, in company with names such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean Paul Sartre, their primary concern was meaning in a post-religious and secular society, particularly as people who exist as physical human beings as opposed to an “essence” or “soul” as was thought by other prominent thinkers. The unique aspect of Camus’ work that would go on to establish an independent sphere of philosophic thought was how he approached a very particular secular dilemma. How are we to resolve our desire for external objective meaning with the absence of that meaning? Camus described the tension resulting from this question as ‘The Absurd’ and in his seminal Philosophical Essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ (1942), he outlines what he believes to be our options when confronted with The Absurd. First, we could give up, commit suicide, and reject the problem entirely. He dismissed this option as counter-productive, as it doesn’t solve the issue at the core of this endeavor. Second, in keeping with thinkers like Sartre or Nietzsche, we could construct our own subjective set of morals and values from which to anchor our sense of personal meaning. Camus rejects this option after some consideration, seeing it as philosophically dishonest since, in essence, it serves as another mechanism to ignore the issue and distance oneself from the tension brought about by The Absurd. Finally, he offers us his counter-intuitive solution… Make peace with the Absurd, coexist with the lack of intrinsic meaning we have long assumed our lives to have been imbued with. There is no meaning, and that’s okay.

Figure 2: Sisyphus by Titian (1548)

As his work evolved, the next logical exploration was to see what it was to live this way, what he called ‘to live without appeal’. This exploration is the foundation of his two most popular works of fiction, “The Stranger”(1942) and “The Plague”(1947). “The Stranger” follows the life of Meursault, a middle-aged man in French Algeria who is strikingly indifferent to the events that unfold around him throughout the story. The book opens with Meursault receiving a letter informing him that his mother has passed. When recounting the events to the reader in the opening paragraph, he is uncertain in his recollection of which day he passed, not out of shock, but simply because he had forgotten, even going as far as to remark that the exact day of her passing didn’t matter. To Camus, Meursault represents a version of the furthest extreme of what one’s life could look like in the complete embrace of The Absurd. However, as his philosophy of Absurdism developed, it took on a crucial counterpart. In “The Plague”, the town of Oran in rural France is struck with an epidemic of the bubonic plague. The book serves as a deeply rich and multi-faceted examination of societal response to crisis, explores the nature of grief and personal responsibility, and most importantly for our understanding of Camus’ ideas, paints a metaphor which provides some direction for those wishing to live without appeal.

In a letter at the end of the book, the narrator remarks that “All I can say is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims– and as far as possible one must refuse to be on the side of the pestilence.” As it relates to The Absurd, Camus identifies an attitude of Revolt here, an obligation to be on the side of the victims of any given injustice. With pestilence standing in to represent suffering, either insignificant or insurmountable, and the call to revolt, a call to action to be a healer of that suffering, no matter how small the impact. Now, the tension that comprises the Absurd is augmented at the maturity of Camus’ writing, evolving from a simple yearning for meaning, to a metaphysical dichotomy of the human spirit and a cold, harsh world which incentivizes harm and exploitation of the weak.

One last idea worth covering before elucidating what this prolific French thinker has to do with an American highway is the application of Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus allegory in contemporary life. In the concluding pages of “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Camus tells the ancient Greek myth to the reader of the man who conquered death and was punished by the Gods for his hubris to roll a heavy boulder up a hill in perpetuity for eternity. The utility of this myth for Camus comes when the plight of Sisyphus is compared with that of modern man. Is it all that different for us to be locked into our daily routines, repeating for most of our lives with no real meaning? Camus would say no. So what are we to do? In the infamous final words of the essay, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Absurdism on a Societal Scale and Route 66

All of the ideas illustrated above are timeless in part for their versatility, they can be applied not only to the individual, but to a community, society, or even a country as a whole. It is in this spirit that the connection between these two begins to come into focus. When Absurdism is considered at the societal scale, socio-political conflict and the struggle for progress take on a deeper meaning than the issues discussed on the surface. The ‘Societal Absurdism’ of the infrastructural era we left behind more than 40 years ago elucidates a motivation behind why this happened on a metaphysical level. As a people, it seems as though we were pulled away from an experience of our most foundational values: freedom and individual expression. In reality, these abstracts were never real since this form of meaning, under Absurdism, is our way of ignoring the Absurd itself. The abandonment of Route 66 and infrastructure like it drew back the current and forced us to gaze upon the Absurd unfiltered.

Figure 3: A Shell Gas Station, Alfo Medeiros, Pexels

In response, we doubled down, replacing the old highway with the ‘Interstate Highway System’ and running to other engagements to give us the illusory meaning we so strongly desire. Finding superficial freedom and expression in subjective towers constructed to keep ourselves ignorant of the reality of the matter. From our careers to personal projects and goals, none of these things will ever resolve the tension of our Absurd condition. The same is as true for us as individuals as it is for our country and whatever unified cultural fabric we may try to claim. There is no objective American ideal of freedom or individuality, not only because those words will mean something different to every individual who would hear them, but simply because objective meaning is non-evident given our current understanding of secular reality. This is the plight of ‘Societal Absurdism’, no matter how many touchstones are erected in the name of “Our values” or “For the sake of the country itself,” they will always be intellectually and philosophically dishonest pursuits. 

It is from this condition that we must collectively revolt, taking up arms in the spirit of our communal commonalities to tangibly improve our lives and environment. For if we are to all exist in tension with the Absurd together, the least we can do is work to be happy, weaponize the radical empathy and compassion which inevitably results from this understanding to cultivate prosperity for our neighbors and all those who may be strangers to us. This is the revelation dormant within the history of this modest highway.

In the end, we traded out one infrastructural system for a more comprehensive and oppressive one. In keeping with the metaphor present in ‘The Plague’, we have welcomed a pestilence into the fabric of our country and allowed for it to fester. In this condition, we are called to be doctors instead of victims, advocates for a better future instead of passive participants. We must engage in the revolt, not to reclaim the meaning we incorrectly attributed to Route 66, but because it is right.

Sources:

1. A&E Television Networks. (2025, January 29). How interstate highways gutted communities-and reinforced segregation. History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/interstate-highway-system-infrastructure-construction-segregation

2. America, T. for. (2025, January 10). What happened to U.S. passenger rail?. Transportation For America. https://t4america.org/2024/05/22/what-happened-to-u-s-passenger-rail/

3. Camus, A. (2005). The Myth of Sisyphus. Penguin. 

4. Camus, A. (2024). Helen’s Exile. ERIS. 

5. Camus, A., & O’Brien, J. (1995). Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. Vintage International : Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

6. Camus, A., & O’Brien, J. (2020). Reflections on The Guillotine. Penguin Books.

7. Camus, A., & Read, H. (2012). The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. Vintage.

8. Camus, A., & Smith, S. (2022). The Outsider. Penguin Classics. 

9. Camus, A., Buss, R., & Judt, T. (2020). The Plague. Penguin Books. 

10. Lottman, H. R. (1979). Albert Camus: A Biography. Doubleday.

11. U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.-a). 5. Demise and Resurgence of Interest in Route 66 (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/demise-and-resurgence-of-interest-in-route-66.htm

12. U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.-b). Article Series (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=5E607D69-BA39-423B-C7DF1CB4F729D57E

    
    

This work is published in Issue 02 of Argus Journal published by The University of Idaho and can be found here.