Good weapons are instruments of fear; all creatures hate them.
Therefore followers of the Tao never use them.
The wise man prefers the left.
The man of war prefers the right.

Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools.
He uses them only when he has no other choice.
Peace and silence are dear to his heart,
And victory no cause for rejoicing.
If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing;
If you delight in killing, you cannot fulfill yourself.

On happy occaisons precedence is given to the left,
On sad occaisons to the right.
In the army the general stands on the left,
The commonder in chief on the right.
This means war is conducted like a funeral.
When many are being killed,
They should be mourned in heartfelt sorrow.
That is why victory must be observed like funeral.

In a culture that revels in competition and views success as equatable to "winning", perhaps it is time to take a closer look at the social mores that reward elitism, exclusion and violence for sake of property...placing an arbitrary and low value on human life. The same human life that has been so ignored by the elite now frightens them with the desperation of poverty...and they buy weapons to protect their status symbols. War is paranoia on a mass scale. Rich boys hiding behind alarm systems, protecting their means of control.
No one needs to win. No one needs to be the best. We can be more if we are given peace in which to think, for then we would see that it is impossible to be better than someone who is not like enough for comparison. The only person anyone can truly conquer...is himself.