I always thought this song had a geopolitical aspect to it. The 'vector of suffrage' hints at the movement of the concept of democracy; vector being the agent that carries the idea of suffrage (i.e. the right to vote). The 'spread of culture' is fairly self evident, as is the 'sword of progress'. Taken together, these all reference the use of force to spread the 'right' way of doing things. That is, the western ideal of liberal democracy. I see the 'blood of the hybrid' as reference to the civil conflicts that were occurring in the Balkans region in the early 1990's as Yugoslavia broke apart into its component parts (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia). It could also refer to nations that have been created with arbitrary borders with little regard for what exists on the ground (e.g. the Sykes–Picot agreement during WW1 which divided the Middle East into British and French controlled territories with no regard for the different ethic groups living in the area.

Anyhoo, that's just my thoughts.

In terms of "the vector of suffrage" I would rather choose the second meaning the "link" in the lyrics offers: "an organism that transmits a disease producing microorganism."

It has more connection to the "spread of culture" and especially to "the warm and septic breeze" as something septic carries bacilli and virus = vectors of diseases.

Edited by Marty

I asked Greg last year about this and he said it all had to do with "the death of cultures at the hands of missionaries." He also said it was all written from an anthropological viewpoint.

I always thought it was about Graffin getting angry at people glorifying America's and modern society's past and agenda.

"Our fore-fathers who led the way, their victims are still here today" - this might be about Native Americans.

"The promise of prosperity / it's overwhelming you and me / it afflicts us like a disease" - it's just made believe that everything is alright and so glorious.

"Our history as it's portrayed / it's just a recipe for hate" - in the end, we fucked up so many times, but aren't even ashamed of it or learned anything out of it. You gotta hate it.

I believe that the "blood of the hybrid" line has to do with people getting angry over 'Race Mixing' in America.

The "sword of progress" could be a reference to a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the new ideas and technology that are propelling us into the future, and on the other hand all the problems that development of these new things can cause.

In my opinion 'Recipe For Hate' basically is Graffin's way of telling people why there's hate in this world--all the reasons he thought of, obviously.

In the line "the promise of prosperity" he talks about how humans are driven to do whatever it takes for money ('money is the cause of all evil,' a popular saying states), putting all their hopes in a leader than most of the time is looking for money himself. For example, Adolf Hitler promised the Germans the return of Germany as a world power and the domination of the Earth. In 1978, P.L.O. (Palestinian Liberation Front) leaders promised Palestinians the return of their homeland if they joined them in the 4th invasion of Israel. This was called the Yom Kippur War, but the P.L.O. and its followers lost and up to this date they hate the Israelis.

In the lines "the spread of culture", "the sword of progress", and "the vector of suffrage" Greg states more reasons. By "the spread of culture" he means how cultural diffusion (movement of one's culture to another nation) leads to hate from the natives toward the foreigners and a wanting for the invaders to make the natives part of them.
In "the sword of progress" he states how people and governments will deforestate and take away the land of others in the name of the nation's sake.
In the "vector of suffrage" (first of all, vector is something that has direction and magnitude, such as weight, force, and velocity; it's a scientific term, as you can deduce) Graffin states how indifferences in society and freedoms cause internal and external problems--equality is a big issue.

Finally, my favorite line from this album, "the blood of the hybrid" (hybrid is any organism that has mixed traits, meaning one trait is dominant and the other recessive, but the recessive is overwhelmed by the dominant trait, for example blood type. A pure blood type is quite rare and it's always mixing as you inherit it from your parents. Again, a scientific term.) I think talks specifically about Hitler's campaign to create a the 'master' race--the Aryan, which according to the Nazis is 'superior' to all other races--and destroy all other people who are not pure.