Why was Jor-El against intervention into human history?

In 1978's Superman Jor-El was against intervention into human history, though Superman wanted to intervene just the same-day history (maybe 30 minutes ago history).

He could succeed to save Lois and the rest of the people initially. What bad if he turns time back like an half hour and fix that? Anyway he does intervene in history all the time, helping people. Just at the moment he wanted to do it not from the now to the future, but in the reverse direction, the only difference.

Let's say he saves Lois in the first place - not an intervention in the history.
He saves Lois turning back in time - an intervention.
What the heck?

superman

Best Answer

What bad if he turns time back like an half hour and fix that?

The question is where the line gets drawn. It's okay to do it when Lois dies, but not if only other people die a preventable death? What about the next event that kills several people? Why would they not be as worth saving as the people he saved before?

But then, why draw the line at 30 minutes? Are people who died 40 minutes ago not worthy of saving? 50 minutes? 60?

And how many people need to die to warrant time travel? 50? 10? 1? Does it count people equally, or are some weighted heavier? Lois? Heads of state? Children?

If children are favored at what age? 18? Why would a 17 year old be more worth saving than an 18 year old who just had their birthday? How about a 17 year old who only has a few more years to live anyway?

And what about countries where the age of maturity is different? Do you follow local custom? What about if they're a foreigner, and their home country has a different age of maturity than the country they die in? I could go on and on.

Jor-El's disapproval isn't rooted in Lois and the others not being worthy to save, but rather that it opens a massive philosophical can of worms. There are only three possible outcomes: you save everyone by time travelling, you never save anyone by time travelling, or you save some people by time travelling. But if you save some but not all people, you are therefore deciding that some people are worth saving more than others.

At a baseline, even without time travel Superman's plot already has to gloss over the fact that Superman isn't saving literally everyone on the planet, and highly favors his local region. That is already a can of worms. But, you can argue that some people are too far away and their death is too imminent for even Superman to reach them. Not because he travels slowly, but because the sound (which alerts him) travels slowly.

But if you open the door to time travel, that limitation ceases to exist, and Superman will effectively be occupied non-stop saving literally everyone, unless you want him to actively decide not to save some people, which goes against the core tenets of the character.

Out of universe, it also destroys any tension in future plots. Whatever happens, you can just rewind time and fix it anyway, so why worry?