John Flaus

Who is John Flaus?

John Flaus is an Australian broadcaster, actor, voice talent, anarchist and raconteur. He was formerly a prominent film academic and theorist. He was born in Maroubra, Sydney.

In 1953, he was a conscientious objector to military conscription during the Korean War, which he claims was instinctive anarchism:

It was just like in the movies. This bloke on the prosecution asks me, "What would you do if you saw an Asiatic attacking your mother?" – remember this is 1953. I said, "I'd try to stop him". He said, "What if the only way was to kill him?" I said, "I'd kill him." He said. "Well, that's what a soldier does, so why are you objecting to being a soldier?" I said, "Now wait a minute, you asked me what I'd do, what decision I'd take on my own initiative. If I'm a soldier someone else takes the initiatives for me, and that's an entirely different thing." This went on for an hour; at one point they tried to ascertain whether there were any religious grounds on which I wouldn't be a soldier. I said, "No, it seems to me the best soldiers get religion" – and that didn't go down too well either

He attended Sydney University as an undergraduate from 1953 to 1971 eventually attaining an M.A.