This is a really interesting point.
The tradition of time travel has become ‘don’t change anything because you might make it worse!*’. (*Except where it places a white man at the centre of history)
Don’t save JFK, because his affairs might come out and the power of his memory would be lessened (Red Dwarf).
Don’t kill Hitler because something, something, look it might be worse, OK? (So many things.)
Rose, don’t save your dad because your mum will see what a loser he is and stop idolising him. And that’s so important we invented a new time-creature thing to punish you if you do. (Doctor Who)
It’s very important that the first female space hero be a hero for DYING. That’s the only way to inspire other women. Not by providing a living example, but by DYING. (Doctor Who)
Man goes back in time. Decides Jesus isn’t good enough. Becomes Jesus. To make sure history as he wants it to be remains intact. (Behold the Man)
Doctor, did you just set Rome on fire? Lol, maybe. It was meant to happen, OK? (Doctor Who)
Doctor, did you just set London on fire? Lol, maybe. It was meant to happen, OK? (Doctor Who)
(OK, a lot of Doctor Who examples, but that Great White Patriarch has been playing with our history, and getting self-righteous about when not to, for longer than anyone.)
Consistent through-thread: tampering with history would be bad, BAD. Because it would change where we are today. You know, the today that’s really great for cis-het white able men, and not a lot of other people.
IT’S VERY IMPORTANT THAT NOTHING ENDANGER THIS, EVEN IF IT MIGHT MAKE THINGS BETTER FOR OTHER PEOPLE.
But, you know, anything that puts a white man at the centre of historical events and maintains the status quo as we know it today is A-OK.
I admit, as a philosopher, I get really irritated with time travel stories that change history as it has actually happened, because they don’t make sense. But, to be fair, NO time travel story actually makes sense if you actually start thinking about the mechanics of time. (Please, no mansplainers who think they know a little something about quantum physics jumping up and down to correct me. Anything about the philosophy of time travel is highly theoretical, but as someone who has lectured on this, my opinion is not under-informed.)
Moreover, my favourite films - The Terminator and Terminator 2, don’t make the tiniest bit of sense, in terms of mechanics. There’s like, at least two time-travel paradoxes at work (a version of the grandfather paradox and the bootstrap paradox), but they’re awesome because they use the time-travel genre to bring about paradigm shift (a woman at the centre of the story, critique of capitalism, critique of essentialism and promotion of self-actualisation and definition (existentialism/no fate but what we make)). Whereas the film of which we do not speak seeks to rationalise the time travel by decentring women from the story and replacing the revolutionary thematic arc of existentialist change with one of fate and inevitability.
So, yeah. Reject the traditions of time travel. There is no fate but what we make. The patriarchy/white dominance/colonialism/heteronormativity/the gender binary etc. etc. - none of these were inevitable, and it isn’t better to stick with these for fear of what might take their place.
The only ones for whom it would be clearly worse if history were different are those in power.
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