I've studied and researched the "common denominator of history's tragedies" for over 60 years, not for publication, but for my own interest. It has always been the same: Empires grew by stealing resources and energy from others, until they went that fatal last step too far and self destructed, as our system is destroying us now.
The world is urged to become "more competitive" but what the proponents of this crime wave never figured out is that competitive systems need constantly increasing energy demands to survive and stay on top, until they run out, burn out and collapse.
This has been the story of all empires and it is happening now , as we can see, observe and record it.
Now it is on a global scale, with a criminal element in control of the colonization of the world. In the past the rulers have done it with arms and religions, allegedly to "spread the faith". Today it is with the perceived power of imaginary money, used as a pseudo religion, taught in our universities as the religion of "neoclassical market economics", which is leading to the same destruction and ultimate collapse as happened in all ages of history. The problem of Friedman's Chicago school of demand side economics is rooted in the Cornucopia model of unending wealth creation. This form of Voodoo economics, with all its pseudo scientific graphs and calculations, ignores supply of resources, especially energy use and externalized effects.
But our "leaders" and so called "economists" can report constant "growth of the GDP", with phony monetary figures, claiming that everything is A-OK.
The world has always been ruled by idiots and crooks, albeit on relatively small scales, until they self destructed, taking millions of innocent lives with them to the grave, but now they can do it globally, to the whole world.