Government and self-sacrifice
To analyze human conservatism demands a treatment of human free will. Hegel takes Leviathan as his jumping-off point, observing an irony in Hobbes's famous treatise. Hobbes observes that technically, humans sacrifice their freedom to the dragon of government—he even says humans create the Leviathan of government by simultaneously burning their freedom on an alter, such that the dragon erupts in flame and smoke. Hegel says, yes to all of that, but also, ironically, humans gain more freedom by doing this, not less, because by sacrificing their will to their law, they ensure more time on earth. It is an exchange of one freedom for another.
Conservatism and exchange
This exchange principle is at the root of conservatism. It isn't just that conservative instincts preserve the status quo—they do that for a specific gain. Just as the Leviathan ensures that humans be murdered less frequently, conservatism ensures a certain maintenance of order. Hegel's analysis shows that such an exchange is one of balance, so that if the "right" philosophy becomes too dominant, a schism can occur.
Moralism and irony
To a person with highly moralistic opinions, it feels to them that life is obviously a game of right and wrong, and that the goal of each decision is to obey what is right. Hegel's analysis shows that this is technically ironic, because life isn't necessarily only that way—although perhaps sometimes it is. Rather, there is a social construct that shape a community's opinion of morality so that it isn't "true goodness" that moralists are obeying, but the communal subjectivity of their group or tribe.
The dragon of morality
Just as the Leviathan arises from the sacrifice of autonomy to a government, so also another dragon arises from the sacrifice of autonomy to morality. The dragon of morality is ethical goodness. Once a person discovers the dynamic nature of morality, showing that moral opinions can be changed by historical precedence, then that person has an additional duty: to preserve only the morals that are truly good, and to change what isn't necessary. This is social ethics, and it lies hidden inside moralism through dramatic irony.
Recombination
Look for a moment at the natural world. Animals that procreate sexually are evolving through time, but not through a process of construction. Hegel says that in the same way nature recombines animal DNA to make a new synthetic version (that either improves or not), so also human opinions evolve through time. This is the dialectical nature of history, because conservatism and progressivism recombine their influences so that the status quo is constantly evolving. The process is ironic when held in contrast to the modernist opinions that proceeded it.
