the elect are just old spirits which come into the world to help it, but often fail

There are 'elects', which are old spirits who have already achieved grace, and might fall into darkness in this lifetime, but who are exempt from whatever sins they might incur.

It isn't that everyone else is certainly damned.

And they experience their lives as everyone else, because they aren't highly exaulted, but woek to balance this realm, eve through their inevitable failures.

But their ultimate purpose is to help others to come into alignment with the Light. Sometimes they fall very low into the darkness, but still retain their nature.

Unless a fallen individual comes into contact with an elect, they will certainly continue into the darkness, which is suffering. Degradation.

Thus, one cannot know an 'elect' based upon their actions or success in the world. Or anything else, externally. Their nature as risen in Christ, servant of God, infuses fallen souls with goodness, which lifts them, and places their lives on a new trajectory.

Peobably you would judge them as fallen as well. Because you aren't (most likely) elect. Most likely you are the result of having come into contact with an elect, and trying to preserve your upward trajectory, in which it is necessary to reject anything which seems degraded. Even though an elect individual may only seem degraded, for the purpose of encountering and elevating fallen individuals.