"Catastrophe is a punishment.  It makes it easier in a way because we know it's not just some terrifying blind force, it has a meaning."  Zizek's claim that people's anxieties should be assuaged during catastrophes because of its deliberateness is a difficult one for me to agree with.  Although it is a comforting idea, I am not convinced that God controls every single treacherous event in our lives.  During times of hardship or despair, many beg the question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?"  Grappling with the aftermath of unspeakable evil such as the Holocaust, genocide, or war, many struggle to reconcile with the role of God and His powers during these catastrophes.  I frequently ponder the same questions.  I think it is too simple to merely state that God controls all of these disasters for a particular purpose.  Zizek referring to the apocalypse as a "revelation" still confuses me.  I think that the word has a far more negative connotation, and labeling it as a "revelation" is inaccurate due to its cultural stigma.

Slavoj Zizek

Out of all the radical ideas Slavoj Zizek conveys in his apocalyptic thinking, one that stood out to me most was his idea of accepting the flaws of human society. As an ecologist, going to the landfill and seeing the trash was an incredible experience for Zizek.
As a society, we have completely alienated ourselves from the heaps of garbage we have created. He articulates it very well with the idea that, even though we logically understand that our poop goes down into the sewer, in the "most elementary" way, it is "disappearing." Such is the case with our garbage. We hold nature to be this perfect and harmonious environment destroyed by the mistakes of humans. Yet until we can learn to see the beauty in these imperfections, we cannot change anything.
Additionally, the human race has inhibited itself from fixing these catastrophic problems like global warming. The assumption that it will all fix itself and the failure to truly recognize the gravity of the problems is where the problem persists.
Also, the idea of the apocalypse being a revelation rather than a catastrophe really fascinates me.