This is one of those stories where narrative simply cannot be beat. But I should say this kind of ghastliness does not surprise me. Nothing to do with eros much surprises me. Powerful men who become sexual predators with impunity are not going to stop because it's in their political interests. Think of Bill Clinton's second term. And the propensity for this behavior is not something fully within the person's control. So, yes, it's irrational; but it is also driven by the unconscious that makes us human. I take these moments to remind myself of that. Of a previous hideous sexual assault, Strauss-Kahn himself remarked
“I don’t know what happened, I went crazy.”
What is hopeful here is the immensely fair way in which the hotel officials and the police responded to the trauma of the raped house maid. One can imagine many other cities around the world in which such a person would be afraid to complain, and if she did, denied credibility or ignored in favor of the powerful. But this woman did exactly the right thing and was backed up in exactly the right way:
At the Sofitel New York, a maid, who refused to give her name, described the woman as friendly. “In the world, she is a good person,” she said. The maid added that her superiors had asked other hotel employees not to question the woman about what happened. “The office said, ‘Don’t ask too much because she is sad,’ ” the maid said. “Just give her a hug when she comes back.”
The Dish 