Entertaining post, Nige. I love Bowie, at least he is open about reinventing himself and that he is an actor with many personas...if only M could...oh never mind.

This part of your post hit the nail on the head:

And the video-Knowledge session still further reduces the requirement on Marge to do a proper job of work for a living

I think he is tired of the "ceaseless effort to bring peace to the world," that he maybe even used to believe. The old body is in bad shape and he has to invent the next phase to have less physical effort on his part. But you know, as soon as you get a chance to see the keys, you will wonder how any brand new person will be able to think that he thinks of himself as just a humanitarian leader. The video is still filled with still shots of him posing, and moving shots of people adoring him, him walking on the beach with voiceovers. It is too narcissistic for anyone not to think he loves himself a bit too much (especially before they have been indoctrinated).