For happiness one needs security but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.
If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business because we'd be cynical. Well that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.
One of the enduring problems with certain societies in the world - and this is certainly true of a lot of places in the Middle East - is that the capacity for self-governance and self-organizing just isn't there. It has to do with history.