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Nassim Taleb - author of the renowned Black Swan book - said people are sick of being told how to think by hapless Eurocrats who "couldn't find a coconut on coconut island". The respected Lebanese professor said Brexit has sparked the "beginning of a revolution" because people have seen through the posturing of unaccountable elites who "don't know what they're talking about".

Mr Taleb, a world-renowned statistician and academic, made the remarks amid growing chaos in Europe about how to deal with the fallout of Britain's historic vote to leave the Brussels bloc. He said the entire world has grown tired of a sneering elite which has spent the last few decades "patronising the bottom 30 per cent" whilst vastly enriching itself.

GETTY The Black Swan writer said people have seen through 'stupid' elites

EXPRESS There are calls for referenda countries across Europe that could sink Brussels

GETTY Author Nassim Taleb has said the EU is 'doomed'

And he hailed the Brexit result as kicking off a revolutionary "wave" that is "spreading", adding that working class people "are intelligent…and they realise globalisation doesn't pay for them, it pays for someone else". In an astonishingly brutal attack on bloated Brussels he blasted: "People have just realised that these elites don't know what they're talking about. "They're tired of that and it's a rebellion. And it's very justified because that elite doesn't have the intellectual level that you would expect. "Economists can't predict anything and are pretty much incompetent. The social scientists aren't really scientists. "With the elite we're not dealing with people with huge intellect. There is some kind of paternalism, telling people how they should be voting by people who can't find a coconut on coconut island."

Nassim Taleb They couldn't find a coconut on coconut island

Mr Taleb's remarks are likely to cause consternation in Brussels because he is a highly respected academic who holds professorial positions at a number of respected US universities. He is also the author of the ground-breaking book Black Swan, which focusses on humans' tendency to find simplistic explanations for rare and unpredictable events, and which has been hailed as one of the most influential intellectual works of modern times. The 55-year-old scholar is also a respected economist, having previously worked as a trader and risk analyst, has consistently warned that the EU is a deeply flawed project. Speaking to TV channel CNBC, he said Brexit could yield a number of significant global advantages including new trade deals and cooperation between the Anglosphere.

GETTY Brussels is reeling from the Brexit vote